142 TRINIDAD. 



each ant selecting the margin of a leaf wherefrom to cut a por- 

 tion ; this it does with its mandibles, by the movement of the 

 head, the body being motionless, so that the cut is circular. 

 "When the portion is nearly separated, it is grasped by the two 

 first legs, and once cut out, the insect elevates it between the man- 

 dibles by one extremity, so that the whole weight of the severed 

 leaf bears backwards, and thus proceeds with its burden home- 

 wards. Some of these cuttings are sometimes half an inch in 

 diameter, and when, as is generally the case, in large bands, 

 they present a most singular appearance, each insect seeming 

 gravely to march under shelter of a parasol ; hence their name 

 of parasol-ants. A great many of the youngest ants accompany 

 the labourers, and as many as seven I have seen clinging 

 to the cutting of a leaf, in which manner they are carried home 

 by their elders. In severing the leaves, many pieces are dropped 

 from the tree, and taken up by those that are at the foot. After 

 they have stripped a tree or plant bare, they proceed to another ; 

 but, as soon as the plant first attacked begins to send forth 

 new shoots, they return to it, so that after it has been thus 

 deprived of its foliage two or three times, it withers away, or 

 becomes so much enfeebled as to be altogether unproductive. 

 In one single night the parasol-ants will bare a tree of its foliage 

 and the damage they occasion is such, in some localities, as 

 greatly to discourage the culture of yams, manioc, and other 

 of their favourite plants. The town of Port of Spain may be 

 said to be infested with the dark parasol- ants, and it is only by 

 constant watchfulness and unceasing exertions that roses, vines, 

 &c., can be preserved from their attacks; it is sometimes even 

 difficult to reach them so as to insure their destruction, for 

 they often nest in walls, and the very walls of the houses. 



Various methods have been tried for destroying these ene- 

 mies : poisons, fumigations, and lastly water, by way of 

 submerging their abodes, and drowning them. Arsenic, corrosive 

 sublimate mixed up with cassada-meal, orange-rind, &c., have 

 been used as agents in their eradication : for one or two days 

 they readily carry the poisonous substance to the nest, and from 

 the effects of which many die ; but they soon detect the mistake, 

 and never touch it again. Fumigations with sulphur, or with 

 sulphur and nitre, are perhaps the simplest means of destroying 

 the parasol-ants. For this purpose, a sort of small furnace is 



