A NATURALISES ENEMIES. 207 



for removal. Ants have a special affection for insect 

 " specimens," and the only way to protect these is to keep 

 the legs of the table on which they are placed in pans of 

 water. Even this does not always answer, as a thin film of 

 dust will make a floating bridge strong enough to bear the 

 weight of the smaller species. Against oil, however, they 

 are all alike powerless. 



Mr. Wallace mentions that in New Guinea, a small 

 black ant took possession of his house, built nests in the 

 roof, made covered ways down the posts and across the 

 floor, and also occupied the boards he used for pinning out 

 his butterflies, filling up the grooves with cells and storing 

 them with small spiders. 



The red ants which in the Moluccas frequent houses are 

 " a most terrible pest," for " they form colonies underground 

 and work their way up through the floors, devouring every- 

 thing eatable. It is very difficult to preserve bird-skins or 

 other specimens of natural history where these ants abound, 

 as they gnaw away the skin round the eyes and the base of 

 the bill j and if a specimen is laid down for even half an 

 hour in an unprotected place it will be ruined." 



"I remember once," says Mr. Wallace, "entering a 

 native house to rest and eat my lunch ; and having a large 

 tin collecting-box full of rare butterfles and other insects, I 

 laid it down on the bench by my side. On leaving the 

 house, I noticed some ants on it, and on opening the box 

 found only a mass of detached wings and bodies, the latter 

 in process of being devoured by fire-ants," as some of these 

 red ants are called from the extreme sharpness of their 

 sting. 



