THE COUSHIE ANT. 143 



leaves so fast that the growth is stopped, and the entire plant 

 sometimes dies. 



The use of the leaves is to thatch the domes of their curious 

 edifices, and to prevent the loose earth from falling in. Some of 

 these domes are of gigantic dimensions, measuring two feet in 

 height and forty feet in diameter, the mightiest efforts of man 

 appearing small and insignificant when the comparative dimen- 

 sions of the builders are taken into consideration. Division of 

 labor is carried out to a wonderful extent in these buildings, for 

 the laborers which gather and fetch the leaves do not place them, 

 but merely fling them down on the ground, and leave them to a 

 relay of workers, who lay them in their proper order. As soon 

 as they have been properly arranged, they are covered with little 

 globules of earth, and in a very short time they are quite hidden 

 by their earthy covering. 



The functions performed by the large-headed ants are not very 

 evident. Those with smooth fronts seem to do nothing but walk 

 about. They do not fight like the soldier-termites, nor do they 

 appear to exercise any rule over the workers. Moreover, they 

 have no sting, and even when assaulted they scarcely ever resent 

 the insult. The hairy-headed variety is still more enigmatical in 

 its duties. " If the top of a small, fresh hillock, one in which the 

 thatching process is going on, be taken off, a broad cylindrical 

 shaft is disclosed, at a depth of about two feet from the surface. 

 If this be probed with a stick, which may be done to the extent 

 of three or four feet without touching the bottom, a small num- 

 ber of colossal fellows will slowly begin to make their way up 

 the smooth sides of the mine. Their heads are of the same size 

 as the class No. 2, but the front is clothed with hairs instead of 

 being polished, and they have in the middle of the forehead a 

 twin ocellus, or simple eye, of quite different structure from the 

 ordinary compound eyes on the sides of the head. This frontal 

 eye is totally wanting in the other workers, and is not known in 

 any other kind of ant. The apparition of these strange creatures 

 from the enormous depths of the mine reminded me, when I first 

 observed them, of the Cyclops of Homeric fable. They were 

 not very pugnacious, as I feared they would be, and I had no dif- 

 ficulty in securing a few with my fingers. I never saw them un- 

 der any other circumstances than those here related, and what 

 their special functions may be I can not divine." 



The subterranean galleries which these creatures form are of 



