356 



ANIMALS OF EGA. 



Chap. V. 



trotted along empty-handed, now turned to assist their 

 comrades with their heavy loads, and the whole descended 

 into a spacious gallery or mine, opening on the top of 

 the termitarium. I did not try to reach the nest, which 

 I supposed to lie at the bottom of the broad mine, and 

 therefore in the middle of the base of the stony hillock. 



Eciton clrepanophora. — The commonest species of 

 foraging ants are the Eciton hamata and E. drepano- 

 phora, two kinds which resemble each other so closely 

 that it requires attentive examination to distinguish 



".&jc< ' > ' " - " ' ~i 







Foraging ants (Eciton drepanophora). 



them ; yet their armies never intermingle, although 

 moving* in the same woods and often crossing each 

 other's tracks. The two classes of workers look, at first 

 sight, quite distinct, on account of the wonderful amount 

 of difference between the largest individuals of the one, 

 and the smallest of the other. There are dwarfs not 

 more than one-fifth of an inch in length, with small 

 heads and jaws, and giants half an inch in length with 

 monstrously enlarged head and jaws, all belonging to 



