590 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



fiict upon tlie property of man, pouring over his plantations like a flood, and sweeping 

 away the fruits of his labors, are of a much more lasting and serious nature than their 

 painful bite or venomous sting. 



In the West Indies, the brown-black Viviagua, about one-third of an inch long, and 

 with a prickly thorax, is the greatest enemy of the coffee plantations. In one day it 

 will rob a full grown tree of all its leaves. It digs deep subterranean passages of con- 

 siderable dimensions and irregular forms, with a great number of liaud-high galleries 

 branchino- out from the sides, and does even more harm to the coffee-plants by its mining 

 operations, than by robbing them of their foliage. Attacked in their roots, they fall 

 into what may be called a consumptive state, bear no fruit, and die after a few months' 

 lingering. The complete extirpation of the nest, and keeping up for some time a strong 

 fire in the excavation, is the only means to subdue the evil, which leads to incalculable 

 losses, when, through negligence, the Viviagua has once been allowed to multiply its 

 numbers. 



Other species are no less destructive to the sugar plantations, either by settling in 

 the interior of the stalks (like the Formica analis), or by undermining the roots 

 (like the Formica saccharivora), so that the plant becomes sickly and dies. About 

 eighty years ago the island of Grenada was overrun by hosts of these devastating in- 

 sects. Many household animals died from their attacks, and they effectually cleared 

 the land of rats, mice, and reptiles. Streams of running water failed to interrupt 

 their progress, and fire was vainly used to stop them, for millions rushed into the 

 flames, and served as a bridge for the myriads that followed. All the means employed 

 to save the sugar plantations from their fury proved ineffectual, until in the year 1780 

 the plague was swept away at once by a dreadful tornado, accompanied by a deluge of 

 rain. 



The Aita cephalotes, a species of ant distinguished by its large head, is the most 

 formidable enemy of the banana and cassava fields. It lies in the ground and multi- 

 plies amazingly ; in a very short time it will strip off the leaves of an entire field, and 

 carry them to its subterranean abodes. Even where their nest is a mile distant from 

 a plantation, these arch depredators know how to find it, and soon form a highway, about 

 half a foot broad, on which they keep up the most active communications with the 

 object of their attack. In masterly order, side by side, one army is seen to move onwards 

 towards the field, while the other is returning to the nest. In the last column each indi- 

 vidual carries a round piece of leaf, about the size of a sixpence, horizontally over its 

 head — a circumstance from which the insect has also been named the Umbrella Ant. 

 If the distance is too great, a party meets the weary carriers half way, and relieves 

 them of their load. Although innumerable ants may thus be moving along, yet none 

 of them will ever be seen to be in the other's way ; and all goes on with the regularity 

 of clock work. A third party is no less actively employed on the scene of destruction, 

 cutting out circular pieces of the leaves, which, as soon as they drop upon the ground, 

 are immediately seized by tha attentive and indefatigable carriers. Neither fire nor 

 water can prevent them from proceeding with their work. Though thousands may be 

 killed, yet in less than an hour all the bodies will have been removed. Should the 

 highway be closed by an insurmountable obstacle, another is soon laid out, and after a 

 few hours the operations, momentarily disturbed, resume their former activity. Tiie 

 ants themselves, particularly the winged females, are considered a great delicacy by 



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