124 JN TH& GUIANA FOREST. 



the leaf-cutting ant. Although it finds many trees 

 in the forest to suit its taste, it never fails to attack 

 plants that are introduced from abroad. Land 

 has been taken up in some places, only to be 

 abandoned when after many trials one set of 

 economic plants after another has been cleared 

 down to bare stems. Native plants are more or 

 less protected ; their leaves are not so well suited 

 for the fungus beds or, as in the case of the 

 trumpet-tree, which protects itself with a garrison 

 of stinging ants, their leaves cannot be obtained. 

 Man has hardly succeeded in his struggle with 

 these apparently insignificant pests. He fights 

 them by puddling their nests, with sulphur, gun- 

 powder, bisulphide of carbon, and cyanide fumes, 

 but he hardly exterminates them. They are 

 almost too strong for him. 



Yet their life-history is of peculiar interest to 

 the naturalist. The female and future mother of 

 perhaps millions takes her nuptial flight from the 

 original nest, carrying with her in her mouth a 

 microscopic piece of fungus. She excavates a 

 small burrow and then places the bit of what 

 will by and by feed the whole community into a 

 suitable place, manuring it with her own excretions. 

 Then begins her life-work, the laying of eggs. A 

 third part of these eggs are soon hatched, another 



