140 TRINIDAD. 



the high forest, and particularly in the neighbourhood of planta- 

 tions : their nests look like so many mounds, some being from two to 

 three feet high, and from twenty to thirty feet in diameter. When 

 they have once settled in a locality they never remove, unless 

 compelled : the nest or township is gradually increased from two 

 or three feet, on the first settlement, to thirty feet in diameter. 

 The parasol-ant shows a great deal of discrimination in the selec- 

 tion of a spot wherein to build its nest ; generally, it is on the 

 gentle slope, or near the bank of some brook. The nest is com- 

 posed, according to the extent of the township, of a greater or 

 lesser number of spherical excavations, each of them being, in 

 general, traversed or crossed by a tree-root : they are separated 

 from each other by a rather thick wall, and communication is 

 effected between the different excavations or chambers by passages 

 cut through the walls ; these have access also to a larger public 

 passage, which opens out at the lower part of the nest on the de- 

 clivity. The earth dug from the excavations is accumulated on 

 the nest, so as to give it the mound-like form already men- 

 tioned. In each of the chambers are deposited the larvae and 

 nymphs, in a soft, light substance of a whitish colour ; this sort of 

 bed is moulded on the excavation, and is generally laid around 

 the root, which was probably preserved for the purpose. The female 

 ants are also lodged in the same substance, and fresh leaves are 

 therein deposited, undoubtedly for food for the larvae and nymphs, 

 and also for the females. I suppose they suck the juice of the 

 leaves, the parenchymatous part being left to be prepared into 

 the white substance above mentioned. Several highways diverge 

 from the nest, branching off afterwards in the various directions 

 which lead to the trees or localities whence they procure their 

 food. Their dwellings are kept perfectly clean, all rubbish and dry 

 leaves being carried away, every day, to a place of deposit, through 

 the common passage already noticed, which may be considered 

 as the main sewer of the township ; it is about one inch high 

 by three or four inches wide. Not far from the place of deposit 

 is what may be termed the cemetery, to which all dead and en- 

 feebled ants are carried and there deposited. From these details, 

 which are too incomplete, perhaps, but which are strictly true, it 

 is easily seen that the nests of the parasol-ants are constructed on 

 a well devised plan. Not only is the spherical form adopted in 

 their underground architecture the best adapted to resist pres- 



