A JUNGLE LABOR-UNION 155 



the Attas rejoice, and straightway desert the na- 

 tive vegetation to fall upon the newcomers. 

 Their whims and irregular feeding habits make 

 it difficult to guard against them. They will 

 work all round a garden for weeks, perhaps pass 

 through it en route to some tree that they are de- 

 foliating, and then suddenly, one night, every 

 Atta in the world seems possessed with a desire 

 to work havoc, and at daylight the next morning, 

 the garden looks like winter stubble a vast ex- 

 panse of stems and twigs, without a single re- 

 maining leaf. Volumes have been written, and 

 a whole chemist's shop of deadly concoctions de- 

 yised, for combating these ants, and still they go 

 Steadily on, gathering leaves which, as we shall 

 see, they do not even use for food. 



Although essentially a tropical family, Attas 

 have pushed as far north as New Jersey, where 

 they make a tiny nest, a few inches across, and 

 bring to it bits of pine needles. 



In a jungle Baedeker, we should double-star 

 these insects, and paragraph them as "Atta, 

 named by Fabricius in 1804 ; the Kartabo species, 

 cephalotes; Leaf -cutting or Cushie or Parasol 

 Ants; very abundant. Atta, a subgenus of Atta, 

 which is a genus of Attii, which is a tribe of Myr- 



