MEXICAN HONEY ANT 281 



.ind on the tops of other plants, like the European plant-lice. 

 These are regularly visited by parties of a little black ant, which 

 may be seen going and coming to their heads, and attending 

 them with the same care which the European ants bestow on 

 (lie Aphides. To render the similarity with cattle still more 



omplete, the Membracida? possess horns growing out of their 

 heads, or are otherwise armed, while their large abrupt heads 

 remind the entomologist of the bull or cow. Mr. Swainson's 

 icmarks did not extend to the particular mode by which 

 these insects eject their secretion; but the surrounding leaves 

 of the stalk which they inhabit are very- clammy, like those of 

 I lie plants infested with the Aphides of Em-ope, and the circum- 

 stance of their always being attended by ants places the fact 

 beyond all doubt. 



The Mexican honey ants {Myi^mecocystua Mexicanus) are, if 

 possible, still more remarkable, for here we see an animal rearing 

 < >thers of the same species for the purpose of food. Some of these 

 ants namely are distinguished by an enormous swelling of the 

 abdomen, which is converted into a mass like honey, and being 

 unable, in their unwieldy condition, to seek food themselves, are 

 fed by the labourers, until they are doomed to die for the be- 

 nefit of the community. Whether this vast distension is the 

 result of an intestinal rupture, caused by an excessive indulgence 

 of the appetite, or whether they are purposely selected, con- 

 fined, and over-fed, or wounded for the purpose, has not yet 

 been ascertained. 



These honey ants are brought to the Mexican markets, and 

 considered a great delicacy. 



The termites, or white ants, as they are commonly called, 

 tliough they in reality belong to a totally different order of 

 insects, are spread in countless numbers over all the warmer 

 legions of the earth, emulating on the dry land the bore-worm 

 iu the sea ; for when they have once penetrated into a building, 

 no timber except ebony and iron-wood, which are too hard, or 

 such as is strongly impregnated with camphor and aromatic oils, 

 which they dislike, is capable of resisting their attacks. Their 

 I favourite food is wood, and so great are their multitudes, so 

 j admirable their tools, that in a few days they devour the timber 



