no IN THE GUIANA FOREST. 



curious forms of mantidae, grasshoppers, flies, and 

 spiders, and an almost bewildering variety of 

 wasps and ants. In the day the butterflies, 

 wasps and bees, are as conspicuous as the flowers, 

 while the ants are really everywhere. On the 

 sand-reefs and high ground generally, the tracks 

 of those species of ants which live in the earth are 

 seen crossing and intersecting each other in every 

 direction. Processions are continually passing 

 and repassing, those that gather leaves to make 

 their mushroom beds reminding us of some great 

 Irish national fete, where every one carries a green 

 banner. Then comes the great army of hunters 

 or scavengers which frighten and scatter every 

 living thing on their route. They rummage out 

 every chink and cranny, now catching a fat beetle- 

 larva, now a cockroach, and farther on, perhaps, 

 some sick or wounded animal. In vain the cock- 

 roach tries to run or even fly ; several of the ants 

 have taken hold, and will let themselves be torn in 

 pieces rather than lose their advantage. Almost 

 before you can see what is going on, every particle 

 of the soft flesh of the insect is eaten, and nothing 

 remains but the two wing-sheaths and the covering 

 of the thorax. 



Here we have in the same class species that are 

 carnivorous as well as others distinctly herbivorous. 



