32 INSECTS. 



habits are alluded to above, inhabits the highlands of Mexico and South Colorado. 

 The nest is constructed in the ground, usually beneath hillocks, in a gravelly soil, 

 and contains passages and chambers arranged in different storeys, some for food, 

 others for the larvae, and the third for the honey-potsi The inhabitants condemned 

 to servitude in the honey-secreting department of this community are never 

 allowed out. An allied species is found in Australia. Still more curious is the 

 South American saiiba, or parasol-ant ((Ecodoma cephalotes), dreaded on account 

 of the havoc it works amongst the foliage of plantations. Agriculture, too, becomes 

 next to impossible where these destructive insects abound. They are not without 

 their uses, however, for the Indians regard the females when full of eggs as a 

 delicacy. Seizing the insects by the thorax, they nip off the luscious morsel with 

 their teeth, much as we may see monkeys behave towards a fly. The nests of this 

 species are prodigious. Bates speaks of hills forty yards in circumference, or about 

 twelve yards across, while others are of even larger size. This hill, huge as it is, 

 is merely the outer covering of a network of galleries extending deep and far into 

 the ground, with many outlets into the surrounding country, usually carefully 

 secured. The workers, of which there are two forms, look after the progeny and 

 gather food ; while the soldiers, with broad heads and terrible jaws, sally forth if 

 danger threatens their citadel. The stronger workers march in daily procession 

 to the plantations in search of leaves, and return, each with a piece securely held 

 in its jaws. The more slightly built remain at home, engaged in the less arduous 

 operations of domestic economy, and rarely venture far from their nest. These 

 leaf -cutting expeditions are directed chiefly against coffee- and orange-plantations, 

 and the ants, accompanied by a detachment of soldiers, partly no doubt to keep 

 order, and more especially to guard the caravan against freebooters, march in 

 large columns to the groves, climb the trees, and begin to reap their daily harvest. 

 Each ant having cut with its toothed mandibles a piece of leaf half an inch in 

 diameter, descends the tree, holds its booty high in the air, edge upwards, and so 

 homewards. The leaf-discs thus held above their heads have earned for these 

 insects the name of " parasol-ants." The path they travel on is soon beaten down 

 with footsteps, and worn till it becomes a deep groove; but even height does 

 not end their activity and mischief, for they make raids on the houses of the 

 planters in search of groceries and sweetstuffs, appearing often in swarms. There 

 are several species of this genus with similar habits, and all are known by the 

 natives of Brazil under the single name saliba. An illustration of one of the leaf- 

 cutting expeditions returning homewards is given in the illustration on p. 31. 



Famil MUTILLID^ etc. 



The species included in the families Mutillidce, Thynnidce, and Scoliidce, 

 number from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred. The females of members of the 

 first two are wingless, while those of all three families possess a formidable poison- 

 sting. Of the European Mutilla europcea, the males may be seen, though not 

 commonly, amongst flowers, and frequenting foliage infested with aphides. The 

 wingless female may, however, often be met with on sandy commons in summer. 

 The larvae are found in the r nests of humble-bees, where they feed upon the grubs. 



