52 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



small-headed workers, and their great distorted 

 jaws are not nearly such effective weapons as 

 the normal jaws of the worker minors. 



One of the commonest species of the Foraging 

 Ants endowed with fully developed visual organs 

 is the Eciton drepanophora, and is probably the 

 insect referred to in some of the rather highly 

 coloured stories about armies of Foraging Ants 

 entering houses and clearing them of rats and 

 mice. As a matter of fact, their ravages are 

 almost exclusively confined to the regions of 

 dense forest. Nevertheless, when they are on 

 the march, there is a great commotion in the 

 forest, every creature, both large and small, 

 endeavouring to get out of the way as quickly as 

 possible, for the Ecitons are most ferocious little 

 insects, burying their pincer-like jaws deeply into 

 the flesh of their victim, and hanging on with 

 bulldog-like tenacity, they turn in their tails, and 

 sting with all their power ; allowing them- 

 selves to be torn to pieces rather than relinquish 

 their hold. As these Foraging Ants do not 

 ascend the trees to any considerable height, most 

 young nestlings escape their onslaughts. It is 

 the creatures living on or near the ground, such 

 as the burrowing larvae of beetles that tunnel 

 into rotting logs, caterpillars feeding on the 

 undergrowth, ground spiders, cockroaches, and 

 so forth, that suffer most severely. The Foragers 

 will even attack and destroy a Wasps' nest, should 

 they come upon one that has been built low 

 down in a bush near the ground, calmly gnawing 

 away the papery outer covering, and seizing and 

 carrying off the helpless Wasp larvae and pupae, 



