ANTS. 115 



black hairy ant, with a large head, called Dinoponera Grandis, 

 Gue>. It is a Brazilian species, and is an inch in length. There 

 are no winged specimens in the Museum. 



The genus Dorylus has been already alluded to. The males are 

 large, heavy-looking, tawny insects, measuring about an inch in 

 length, with a long and rather slender abdomen, and wings about 

 an inch and a quarter in expanse. The female, which has only 

 lately been described by Mr. Trimen, from a specimen which he 

 obtained from a friend (Mr. Fairbridge), who had it dug out of a 

 nest which he was destroying, is not unlike the male, but blind 

 and wingless ; while the workers are much smaller red ants, with 

 powerful mandibles, and have been placed in quite another genus, 

 Anomma, Shuck. Mr. Trimen has since informed me that the 

 chief difficulty in investigating the domestic habits and mutual 

 relations of these ants arises from the fact that they generally make 

 their nests under the foundations of buildings, the owners of which 

 are selfishly unwilling to allow their houses to be pulled down in 

 the cause of science. 



Various species of ants, including the workers of Dorylus, are 

 in the habit of migrating in vast armies, both in Africa and 

 America, devouring all the insects they meet with. The inhabitants 

 are glad to quit their houses on their approach, when the ants enter,, 

 and make a clean sweep of all the vermin on the premises, which 

 they attack in such numbers that neither the great cockroaches, 

 nor even the rats and mice, can escape them. When they reach a 

 small stream, they form a bridge of their own bodies, one clinging 

 to another. When they pass through a forest it is said to be 

 quite a ludicrous sight to see the stampede of locusts, grasshoppers, 

 and other insects before them. Mr. Belt has given a very interest- 

 ing account in his Naturalist in Nicaragua of the foraging parties of 

 ants belonging to the genus Eciton, Latr., one of the Myrmicince. 

 The spiders showed the greatest intelligence ; some dropping down 

 from the branch of a tree by a thread, so as to remain suspended, 

 secure from the foes which swarmed above and below ; while the 

 larger ones, instead of taking refuge, like the cockroaches, with 

 the certainty of being soon driven out again, and surrounded and 

 devoured, would " make off many yards in advance, apparently 

 determined to put a good distance between themselves and the 

 foe." He also saw one of the Phalangiidce (eight-legged creatures, 

 allied to the spiders) standing in the midst of the ants, and lifting 

 its long legs whenever any of the ants approached, sometimes 



