158 FORMICID.^ — ANTS. 



cause tlicy had such a high spirit to dare to offer to be re- 

 lated to sucli a generous creature, they had this virtue be- 

 stowed upon tlieni, that they should sting after this manner. 

 And if they had obtained a wife of the Xoya, they should have 

 had tiie privilege to sting full as bad as he."^ Capt. Sted- 

 man has a story of a large Ant that stripped the trees of their 

 leaves, to feed, as was supposed by the natives of Surinam, a 

 blind serpent under ground,^ which is somewhat akin to this : 

 as is also another, related to Kirby and Spence by a friend, 

 of a species of Mantis, taken in one of the Indian islands, 

 which, according to the received opinion among the natives, 

 was the parent of all their serpents.'' But, the reverse : 

 Among the harmless snakes of Mexico is a beautiful one 

 about a foot in length, and of the thickness of the little 

 finger, which appears to take pleasure in the society of 

 Ants, insomuch that it will accompany these insects upon 

 their expeditions, and return with them to their usual nest. 

 From this peculiarity it is called by the Spaniards and 

 Mexicans the "Mother of the Ants."^ 



When in Africa, Du Chaillu was told by the natives that 

 criminals in former times were exposed to the path of the 

 Bashikouay-ants, as the most cruel way of putting them to 

 death. ^ This dreadful manner of torturing was at one time 

 also practiced by the Singhalese, and I have heard that sev- 

 eral British soldiers have thus met their fate. The Termites 

 have been referred to before as having been employed for a 

 similar purpose. 



To check the ravages of the Coffee-bug, Lecanium coffea, 

 Walker, which for several years was devastating some of the 

 plantations of Ceylon, the experiment was made of intro- 

 ducing the Red-ants, Formica smaragdina, Fab., which 

 feed greedily on the Coccus.^ But the remedy threatened 



1 Knox, m'st. Rel. of Ceylon, Pt. I. ch. vi. p. 24. 



2 Stedm. Surinam, ii. 142. 

 8 K. and S. Introd., i. 123. 



* Smith's Nature and Art, xii. 195. Clavigero supposes that all 

 the attachment which the snake 'shows to the Ant-hills proceeds 

 from its living on the Ants themselves. 



5 Du Chaillu, p. 312. 



6 The Swiss farmers, in order to rid their trees of caterpillars, 

 allure the Ants to climb the trees, where, being confined by a circle 

 of pitch round the holes, hunger soon causes them to attack the 

 noxious larvae. 



