OUR BENEFACTORS. 291 



used for the purpose of making mead. Specimens may 

 be seen in the British Museum. 



Were it not for this property the Honey Ant would 

 be one of the many insects which are called noxious. 

 But its counterbalancing qualities are such that, in its 

 own country, it almost equals the honey bee in its value 

 to man. 



Even in Europe the ants are not without their direct 

 use to man. Every one knows the common Wood Ant 

 (Formica rufa), sometimes called the Horse Ant, which 

 heaps up fragments of dried grass, broken twigs, dead 

 leaves, and similar objects, into large hills. If one of 

 these hills be opened a curiously pungent odour will be 

 perceived, not unlike that of green wood when heated in 

 the fire. If the face or even the hand be held in the 

 hollow of the nest a sharp, pricking sensation will be 

 felt, as if the skin were pricked with thousands of tiny 

 needles. 



This is caused by a peculiar secretion of the Ant, 

 called " formic acid," from its origin. 



I have seen a dog, who had inadvertently scratched a 

 hole in one of these nests, suffer terribly from his indis- 

 cretion. He was half mad with pain and terror, and 

 half blinded by the formic acid which had found its way 

 into his eyes, besides irritating his nostrils, as if pepper 

 had been thrown into them. 



In England the use of this acid is not recognised, 

 and the ants are considered simply as noxious in 

 sects, on account of the pain which they can cause 



