ANTS 285 



is the scavenger of all timber, does immense 

 damage to furniture, wooden railway sleepers, 

 pit props, and any structure where untreated wood 

 is employed. 



Fortunately the white ant has many enemies ; 

 for besides the birds which destroy them in their 

 period of flight, the ant bear and armadillo take 

 nightly toll by tearing down the ant-hills with 

 their strong claws, and licking up the white ants 

 in hundreds with their whip-like tongues. 



The most feared of all Angolan ants is the 



o 



"Driver" so called because, fierce and strong- 

 jawed, he moves in columns of such countless 

 thousands as to drive every living thing from his 

 path. All animals and wise men avoid him, and 

 woe betide anything which lingers in his way, for 

 first death and then annihilation are certain if 

 escape is impossible. And the drivers cannot 

 always be avoided ; for like most ants they are 

 sensitive to sunlight, and forage usually in the 

 evening or at night, when their columns, inches 

 wide but furlongs deep, may attack a village or a 

 hunting camp if these come in their road, or offer a 

 prospect of food. 



The driver will occasionally start his foraging 

 on a cloudy day, or, if in a shady forest, in sunshine. 

 Should they be caught by sunlight, the soldiers 

 form a living vault to protect the workers from the 

 sun. 



One night in Angola I was driven off my camp- 

 ing-ground by the invasion of a column of driver 

 ants, and the native carriers, lying practically 

 naked on the ground, were badly bitten ; and 



