MILITARY ANTS. 121 



Lastly, there are two species of Eciton totally blind, 

 and their habits dififer from those of the species which 

 we have hitherto considered. Bates writes of them : — 



The armies of E. vastator and E. erratica move, as far as I 

 could learn, wholly under covered roads, the ants constructing 

 them gradually but rapidly as they advance. The column of 

 foragers pushes forward step by step, under the protection of 

 these covered passages, through the thickets, and on reaching a 

 rotting log, or other promising hunting-ground, pour into the 

 crevices in search of booty. I have traced their arcades, occa- 

 sionally, for a distance of one or two hundred yards ; the grains 

 of earth are taken from the soil over which the column is pass- 

 ing, and are fitted together without cement. It is this last- 

 mentioned feature that distinguishes them from the similar 

 covered roads made by termites, who use their glutinous saliva 

 to cement the grains together. The blind Ecitons, working in 

 numbers, build up simultaneously the sides of their convex 

 arcades, and contrive, in a surprising manner, to approximate 

 them and fit in the key-stones without letting the loose un- 

 cemented structure fall to pieces. There was a very clear di- 

 vision of labour between the two classes of neuters in these 

 blind species. The large-headed class, although not possessing 

 monstrously lengthened jaws like the worker-majors in E. 

 hamata and E. drepanophora, are rigidly defined in structure 

 from the small-headed class, and act as soldiers, defending the 

 working community (hke soldier termites) against all comers. 

 Whenever I made a breach in one of their covered ways, all 

 the ants underneath were set in commotion, but the worker- 

 minors remained behind to repair the damage, whilst the large- 

 heads issued forth in a most menacing manner, rearing their 

 heads and snapping their jaws with an expression of the fiercest 

 rage and defiance. 



Annorrda arcens. — This is the so-called ' driver ' or 

 ' marching ' ant of West Africa, which in habits and intel- 

 ligence closely resembles the military ants of the other 

 hemisphere. I shall therefore not wait again to describe 

 these habits in detail. Like the Ecitons, the marching 

 ants of Africa have no fixed nest, but make temporary halts 

 in the shade of hollow trees, overhanging rocks, &c. 

 They march in large armies, and, like the Ecitons, always 

 in the form of a long close column ; but in this case the 

 relative position of the carriers of spoil and larvae is re- 



