THE MOSQUITO AND THE ANT. 3 



miasma ; while the vast armies of mosquito larvae that swarm 

 along the edges of tropical lakes and feed upon the decaying 

 substances that fall from the herbage of the banks, purify at 

 the same time the water and the atmosphere, and enable human 

 beings to breathe with safety the air in which without their aid 

 no animal higher than a reptile could have existed. 



The next insect plague of which a traveller complains is 

 generally summed up in the word Ants. He seldom troubles 

 himself to ascertain the species of the ant, to preserve specimens 

 for the benefit of science, or to obtain the least insight into their 

 habits. All he knows or cares is, that some ants, which were 

 very small, stung him, each sting feeling like the prick of a red- 

 hot needle. Some, which were very large, bit him even through 

 his clothes, and held on with such more than bull-dog tenacity, 

 that after the bodies were torn away, the heads not only 

 retained their hold, but went on biting. 



Then, multitudinous ants, large, small, and middle-sized, 

 swarmed into his room or tent, and ate up his provisions almost 

 before his very eyes. If he put the legs of the table into water, 

 they made extemporised pontoon bridges of their bodies and 

 extended legs, and so enabled the ant-armies to scale the 

 citadel, despite of the moat. If he hung his shelves from 

 strings, the ants crawled down the strings. And, if he did 

 succeed in isolating a table by putting the legs in saucers full 

 of oil, the ants crawled up the w r alls, then on the ceiling, and 

 then dropped on the table. They ate his food, they swarmed 

 into his drink, and they tore to pieces all his birds and other 

 specimens that he had collected. 



Of course this conduct was anything but agreeable, and it 

 was very natural that the traveller, looking at everything as it 

 affected himself individually, should feel aggrieved, and wonder 

 why such mischievous creatures should have been made. But 

 if we put aside the temporary and individual inconvenience 

 caused to the traveller or colonist, and look to the real mission 

 of these detested insects, we shall find that they play on the land 

 a part like that of the mosquitos on the water, and rank among 

 the most important of the scavengers of the earth. Their 

 presence is undoubtedly disagreeable to individual men, but 

 mankind would suffer severely if the Ant tribes were to be 

 extinguished. 



B 2 



