154 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 



against you. This is what hundreds of leaf-cut^ 

 ting ants accomplish daily, when cutting leaves 

 from a tall bush, at the foot of the bank near the? 

 laboratory. 



There are three dominant labor-unions in the 

 jungle, all social insects, two of them ants, never 

 interfering with each other's field of action, and 

 all supremely illustrative of conditions resulting 

 from absolute equality, free-and-equalness, com- 

 munalism, socialism carried to the (forgive me!) 

 anth power. The Army Ants are carnivorous, 

 predatory, militant nomads; the Termites are 

 vegetarian scavengers, sedentary, negative and 

 provincial; the Attas, or leaf -cutting ants, are 

 vegetarians, active and dominant, and in many; 

 ways the most interesting of all. 



The casual observer becomes aware of thenl 

 through their raids upon gardens ; and indeed the; 

 Attas are a very serious menace to agriculture 

 in many parts of the tropics, where their nests^ 

 although underground, may be as large as st 

 house and contain millions of individuals. While* 

 their choice among wild plants is exceedingly 

 varied, it seems that there are certain things they 

 will not touch; but when any human-reared 

 flower, vegetable, shrub, vine, or tree is planted* 



