Chap. VI.] 



ANTS. 



25d 



it is scarcely an exaggeration to apply to tliem the 

 figure of " the sands of the sea." They are every- 

 where ; in the earth, in the houses, and in the trees ; 

 they are to be seen in every room and cupboard, and 

 almost on every plant in the jungle. To some of the 

 latter they are, perhaps, attracted by the sweet juices 

 secreted by the aphides and coccidas ; and such is the 

 passion of the ants for sugar, and their wonderful faculty 

 of discovering it, that the smallest particle of a substance 

 containing it, though placed in the least conspicuous 

 position, is quickly covered with them, where not a single 

 one may have been visible a moment before. But it is 

 not sweet substances alone that they attack ; no animal 

 or vegetable matter comes amiss to them ; no aperture 

 appears too small to admit them ; it is necessary to place 

 eveiything which it may be desirable to keep free from 

 theu" invasion, under the closest cover, or on tables with 

 cups of water under every foot. As scavengers, they 

 are invaluable ; and as ants never sleep, but work 

 without cessation, during the night as well as by day, 

 every particle of decaying vegetable or putrid animal 

 matter is removed with inconceivable speed and certainty. 

 In collecting shells, I have been able to turn this pro- 

 pensity to good account ; by placing them within their 

 reach, the ants in a few days -will remove every vestige of 

 the mollusc from the innermost and othermse inaccessible 

 whorls ; thus avoiding all risk of injuring the enamel by 

 any mechanical process. 



But the assaults of the ants are not confined to dead 

 animals alone, they attack equally such small insects as 

 they can overcome, or find disabled by accidents or 

 wounds ; and it is not unusual to see some hundreds of 



era India. But M. Nietner has re- 

 cently foi-warded to the Berlin Mn- 

 seum upwards of seventy species 

 taken by him in Ceylon, chiefly in the 

 western province and the vicinity of 

 Colombo. Of these many are iden- 



tical with those noted by Mv. Jerdau 

 as belonging to the Indian continent. 

 One (probably Drepanof/tiafhi(s sal- 

 tator of Jerdan) is described by M. 

 Nietner as "moving by jumps of 

 several inches at a spring.'' 



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