THE SAUBA ANT. 



75 



giving the preference to cultivated trees, such as the orange 

 and the coffee, and cut away the 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 

 labour is carried out to a wonderful extent in these buildings, 

 for the labourers 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 litde 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 dudes. ' If the top of a small, fresh hillock, one in which 

 the thatching process is going on, be taken off, a broad cylin 

 drical 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 number of colossal fellows will slowly begin to make 

 their way up the smooth sides of the mine. Their lieads 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 Cyclopes of 



