68 DISEASES, ETC. 



that contained former nests, an equal persistence and careful 

 watching is needed to keep the ground clear. Where cultivation 

 is conducted in proximity to a large area of forest lands the 

 matter becomes a very difficult one indeed, for not only have the 

 local nests to be destroyed but also those in the distant wood- 

 lands, and especially the large nests, a raid from which will 

 frequently do irreparable damage to a plantation in a single 

 night. There are many methods in use for compassing their 

 destruction, the most common being that of digging out and 

 puddling with water. Some forms of destruction are suitable 

 for one locality and some for another. Where a constant watch 

 for new nests is regularly kept, as at the Royal Botanic Gardens, 

 they do not become of any great size before they are discovered, 

 and a dose of coal tar poured into their nest effectually disposes 

 of them, once and for all, at that particular spot, as they never 

 again return where coal tar has once been applied. Other nests 

 can best be attacked by using the fumes of sulphur driven in by 

 bellows or fan. A handy machine lately introduced, 

 costing some $24. 00, known as the " Asphyxiator," can 

 be used with sulphur or any other chemical producing 

 deadly fumes. These ants will, when on ryid from a large nest, 

 make a track as much as 10 or 12 inches wide (from which 

 every portion of herbage is carefully cut away) for the purpose 

 of carrying home to the nest the leaves they cut from the trees, 

 and several large trees are often completely cleared of leaves and 

 flowers in the space of a single- night. Each ant is able to carry 

 a piece of leaf half an inch in diameter, and hold it in its 

 mandibles above its head, resembling when on the march the 

 sails uf a fleet of liliputian schooners dipping and swaying to the 

 wind. Belt, in the Naturalist in Nicaragua, studied these 

 insects and came to the conclusion that the leaf is not used 

 primarily for food, but is chewed up, and placed in a position 

 where the mycelium of certain fungi at once attack it, and form 

 food for the ants and their larvae. Certain it is, that a peculiar 

 mycelium is found permeating the inside of every nest, and gives 

 to it a peculiar odur of its own, which once recognize d, is again 

 easily distinguished. Belt's observation has since been confirm* d 

 by the observations of the writer, who for several years had 

 artificial nests under observation. In these the ants could be 

 seen feeding themselves and their larvae upon the conidia of the 

 fungus, which is actually cultivated for food by these creatures. 



There arf several species of aphides or p'ant lice &c., which 

 attack Cacao, but, unless the plant is in bud health from some 

 tt'httr cause they seldom do any great harm, especially if clean i- 

 wess'nml order, are the rule on thn plantation. Tt has been found 

 iu>wever that ic is quite possible for any biting 01 sucking insect 



