384 



HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



lack of popular names forces me to employ the scientific titles by 

 which the insects are known to naturalists. 



Although in the Ecitons there are the three classes of males, 

 females, and neuters, these neuters are not divided into two dis- 

 tinct sets as in the termites, but are found in regular gradations 

 of size. The real Foraging Ant is Eciton drepanophora, and it is 

 this insect which is so annoying and so useful to house-builders. 

 The ants sally forth in vast columns, at least a hundred yards in 

 length, though not of very great width. On the outside of the 

 column are the officers, which are continually running backward 

 and forward, as if to see that their own portions of the column 

 are proceeding rightly. The proportion of officers to workers is 

 about five per cent., or one officer to twenty workers, and they 

 are extremely conspicuous on the march, their great white heads 

 nodding up and down as they run along. 





One of the large workers is now before me, and a most formi- 

 dable insect it looks. Its head is round, smooth, and very large, 

 and is armed with a pair of enormous forceps, curved almost as 

 sharply as the horns of the chamois, and very sharp at the points. 

 Their length is so great that, if straightened and placed end to 

 end, they would be longer than the head and body together. 

 They are beset with minute hairs, which, when viewed under the 



