338 



ENTOMOLOGY 



times thirty or forty feet in diameter, and making paths in 

 various directions from the nest for access to the plants of the 



FIG. 283. 



FIG. 284. 



A, leaf-cutting ant, Atta cephalotes. B, wandering ant, Eciton drepanophorum; C, 

 Eciton omnivorum. Natural size. After SHIPLEY. 



vicinity; Belt often found these ants at work half a mile from 

 their nest; they attack flowers, fruits and seeds, but chiefly 



leaves. Each ant, by laboring 

 four or five minutes, bites out a 

 more or less circular fragment of 

 a leaf (Fig. 284) and carries it 

 home, or else drops it for another 

 worker to carry; and two strings 

 of ants may be seen, one carry- 

 ing their leafy burdens toward the 

 nest, the other returning for more 

 plunder. 



The use made of these leaves 

 has been the subject of much dis- 

 cussion. Belt found the true ex- 

 planation, but it remained for 

 Moller to investigate the subject 

 so thoroughly as to leave no room 

 for doubt. The ants grow a fun- 

 gus upon these leaves and use it 

 as food. The bits of leaves are 

 kneaded into a pulpy, spongy 

 mass, upon which the fungus at 

 length appears. The food for 



A, B, cuts made in Cuphea 

 leaves in four or five minutes by 

 Atta discigera; natural size. C, 

 Atta discigera transporting severed 

 fragments of leaves; reduced. 

 After MOLLER. 



