THE FUNGUS ANT. 



239 



every spider, scorpion, cockroach, or reptile that pollutes his 

 dwelling. Unfortunately, this thorough cleansing is but of 

 short duration, as in less than a week tropical life calls forth a 

 new generation of vermin. 



The wonderful societies of the ants, their strength and 

 perseverance, their unwearied industry, their astonishing 

 intelligence, are so well known, and have been so often and so 

 admirably described,* that it would be trespassing on the 

 patience of my readers were I to enter into any lengthened 

 details on the subject. And yet, the observations of naturalists 

 have chiefly been confined to the European species, while the 

 economy of the infinitely more numerous tropical ants, confined 

 to countries or places hardly ever visited, or even unknown to 

 civilised man, remains an inexhaustible field fo-r future inquiry. 



FUNGUS ANT. 



The study of their various buildings alone, from the little we 

 ;know of them, would occupy a zealous entomologist for years. 

 iHere we have an American species that forms its g'lobular nest 

 jof the size of a large Butch cheese, of small twigs artistically 

 linterlaced ; there another, which (^Formica bispinosa) uses 

 [cotton for its building material, and through the chemical 



* Kirby and Spence's ' Introduction to Entomology;' Swainson's 'Habits and 

 ►Instincts of Animals.' 



