ANTS. ii>j 



deserted ant-roads, as affording an easy path to travel. 

 Branches of these caminos reales, or royal roads, may be 

 traced to favorite species of trees, along M'hose trunks will 

 be found two dark lines of these industrious w^orkers ; in 

 one they are ascending, in tlie other descending, each ant 

 in the latter line hid beneath a piece of leaf, which he car- 

 ries vertically, as he hurries onward to his home. It is 

 evident that they perform their journey, not by sight, but 

 by the sense of smell ; for we have often broken their 

 lines by sweeping away the surface of the earth, when 

 they would become confused, until in their wild ramblings 

 the connection was discovered, when they would rush on 

 again in heaA^y phalanx. When they wish to cross a 

 stream, they seek a fallen trunk which spans the same, or 

 ascend a tree whose boiighs form a union with others iipon 

 the opposite side. To test their instinct we have removed 

 their bridges, taking the precaution to place ourselves out 

 of harm's way. Satisfying themselves that their connec- 

 tion with the opposite bank was severed, they sought a 

 crossing above or below, whicli being found, they made 

 good their lines, and business went on as before. Some 

 Indian tribes esteem certain species of these large ants as 

 excellent food. Humboldt informs us that he saw, upon 

 the headwaters of the Orinoco and Rio Negro, natives 

 who subsisted during a portion of the year mainly upon 

 these insects, which, being dried and smoked, were mixed 

 as seasoning into a sort of paste. At Quito, in Ecuador, 

 we have ourselves observed the Indians to eat a species of 

 coleoptera collected in quantities and roasted. With less 

 preparation, the natives pick certain hemipterous insects 

 from one another's heads and eat them with peculiar satis- 

 faction. 



So'infestel are some districts with ants, and so great 

 their destructive proclivities, that it is almost impossible 

 to secure the growth of tender and siicculent plants, which 



