INSECTS. 



223 



Fig. 221. — Young plant of Hydno- 

 phyton, showing tbe bulb occupied 



by ants. 



die short momentary contact of my hand with the bunch, with myriads of 

 a minute species of ant (Pheidole javana), whose every bite was a sting of 

 fire. Beating a precipitous retreat from the spot, I stripped with the baste 

 of desperation, but, like pepper-dust over me, they were writhing and 

 twisting their envenomed jaws in my skin, each little abdomen spitefully 

 quivering with every thrust it made. Going back, when once I had rid 

 myself of my tormentors, to secure the specimens I had gathered, I dis- 

 covered in the centre of the bunch a singular plant I had never seen 

 before, which I perceived to be the central attraction of the ants. . . I 

 was overjoyed with the revelation, that a slice 

 struck off by my knife made of an intricate, 

 honey-combed structure, swarming with minute 

 ants, — a living formicarium." The plant con- 

 sisted of a large spiny bulb, surmounted by an 

 axis bearing the leaves and the minute flowers ; 

 the inside of the bulb being ramified with galleries 

 in all directions to form a home for the ants. 

 What is most strange is that the plant itself 

 forms these galleries without the slightest assist- 

 ance from the ants, and they are produced as 

 well when no ants are present as at other times. 



Inside the nests the labors of the ants are somewhat specialized. The 

 care of the eggs, larvae, and pupae devolves upon the young and tender 

 workers, and they are kept pretty busy feeding their charges, and carrying 

 them from higher to lower levels and back again, according to the varia- 

 tions in temperature and moisture, and the imminence or absence of dan- 

 ger. The foraging and fighting, on the other hand, fall upon the older 

 workers with thicker skins, and it would appear from Mr. Lubbock's ol i 

 vat ions, that foraging parties are regularly detailed to attend to the food 

 of the colony. He found, by marking them with paint, that the same 

 individuals came out after the honey every day for many weeks in succes- 

 sion. As this might be laid to greediness on their part, he confined them 

 one day, and then others came out to take their place. 



The food of ants consists largely of insects, but they are also fond of 

 sweet substances, like honey, sugar, and fruit, as well as animal matter of 

 any sort; while, as we shall have occasion to remark farther on. this diet 

 is varied by other substances. The important part they play in destroying 

 insects can hardly be appreciated. "Forel found in one large nest that 

 more than twenty-eight dead insects were brought in per minute, which 

 would give, during the period of greatest energy, more than one hundred 

 thousand insects destroyed in a day by the inhabitants of one nest alone.*" 



