THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 57 
The pursued insects would rapidly make off, but many in their 
confusion and terror would bound right into the midst of the 
main body of ants. At first the grasshopper, when it found 
itself in the midst of its enemies, would give vigorous leaps, 
with perhaps two or three of the ants clinging to its legs; then 
it would stop a moment to rest, and that moment would be 
fatal, for the tiny foes would swarm over the prey; and after 
a few more ineffectual struggles it would succumb to its fate, 
and soon be bitten to pieces and carried off to the rear. The 
greatest catch of the ants was, however, when they got 
amongst some fallen brushwood: the cockroaches, spiders, 
and other insects, instead of running right away, would 
ascend the fallen branches and remain there, whilst the host 
of ants were occupying all the ground below. By and bye up 
would come some of the ants, following every branch, and 
driving before them their prey to the ends of the small twigs, 
when nothing remained for them but to leap, and they would 
alight in the very throng of their foes, with the result of being 
certainly caught and pulled to pieces. Many of the spiders 
would escape by hanging suspended by a thread of silk from 
the branches, safe from the foes that swarmed both above 
and below.”—P. 18. 
Leaf-cutting Ants.—“ Nearly all travellers in tropical 
America have described the ravages of the leaf-cutting ants 
(Gicodoma): their crowded, well-worn paths through the 
forests; their ceaseless pertinacity in the spoliation of the 
trees, more particularly of introduced species, which are left 
bare and ragged, with the midribs and a few jagged points of 
the leaves only left. After travelling for some hundreds of 
yards, often for more than half a mile, the formicarium is 
reached. It consists of low, wide mounds of brown, clayey- 
looking earth, above and immediately around which the 
bushes have been killed by their buds and leaves having 
been persistently bitten off as they attempted to grow after 
their first defoliation. Under high trees in the thick forest 
the ants do not make their nests, because I believe the 
ventilation of their under-ground galleries, about which they 
are very particular, would be interfered with, and perhaps to 
avoid the drip from the trees. It is on the outskirts of the 
forest, or around clearings, or near wide roads that let in the 
sun, that these formicariums are generally found: numerous 
I 
