NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Sugar ants 



mon red ant in England. They have stings, but 

 scarcely force enough to make them felt: they 

 have, however, a power of tormenting in an 

 equal if not in a greater degree; for the moment 

 the root in which they are lodged should be 

 handled they swarm from innumerable holes, 

 and, running about those parts of the body that 

 are uncovered, produce a titillation more intole- 

 rable than pain, except it is increased to great 

 violence. 



The sugar ants, (which took their name from 

 their ruinous effects on the sugar-cane^) first 

 made their appearance in Grenada about forty 

 years ago, on a sugar plantation at Petit Havre, 

 a bay five or six miles from the town of St. 

 George. From thence they continued to extend 

 themselves on all sides, for several years; de- 

 stroying in succession every sugar-plantation be- 

 tween St. George's and St. John's, a space of 

 about twelve miles. At the same time colonies 

 of them began to be observed in other parts of 

 the island. These ants are of a middle size, and 

 of a dark red colour. They make their nests 

 only under the roofs of particular plants and 

 trees, such as the sugar cane, the lime, lemon, 

 and orange trees, where they are protected from 

 the winds and rain; and the mischief done by 

 them does not arise from their devouring those 

 plants, but from these lodgments at their roots. 

 Thus the roots of the sugar cane are somehow 

 or other injured by them as to be incapable of 

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