CECODOMA - 



-INSECTS.- 



-Anomma. 



183 



a nest of some peaceful and industrious species of 

 Foi-mica. Tlie Ecitons crowd into the nests of tlie ants, 

 each seizing upon a helpless victim, and carry or drag 

 it out of the nest ; if the ant prove too heavy for a 

 single Eciton to carry, it is rutlilessly torn into pieces, 

 two or more assisting in the operation. The march is 

 then commenced back to the nest of the Eciton, the 

 living ants and the mangled remains of others being 

 probably conveyed there, for the purpose of feeding the 

 young brood of the marauders." 



Tn every nest there are two diijtinct forms of workers. 

 Tn the Eciton hamatum the larger worker or soldier 

 is furnished with long, curved, sickle-shaped mandibles. 

 Tliere are about five of these soldiers to every hundred 

 of the smaller individuals. 



A curious genus of ants has been described, called 

 Pneiuhmyrma, distinguished by its elongated form, 

 petiolated abdomen, and by the large eyes in both sexes; 

 these organs in many species occupying the whole side 

 of the head. Slost of the species excavate the pitli from 

 dried twigs ; the eggs are laid in the burrows thus 

 formed, and the young brood developed.* The com- 

 munities are not very populous, as they frequently 

 consist of not more than twenty, exclusive of larva; 

 and pupas. The Pseudomyrma termitaria takes up its 

 abode in the nests of dilferent species of white ants 

 {Termes), wdiile others form small elliptical chambers 

 iu the outer walls of the tumuli of the white ants, a 

 single colony only apparently occupying eaoli chamber ; 

 these are generally wide apart. The pupce oi Pseudo- 

 myrma do not spin cocoons. The insects, when out 

 of the nest, are to be seen coursing rapidly over trees 

 and herbage. The sting is very slight. 



TH? GREAT-HEADED RED ANT {(Ecodoma cephalo- 

 tcs) is mentioned by Mr. Alfred Wallace as one of the 

 insects used by the Indians of the Amazon for food. 

 It inhabits the whole district of the Amazon, and is 

 found generally over Brazil in sandy districts and 

 places where red earth is found. Tiie nests of this 

 species are formed in woods and in gardens, where it 

 turns up the soil to such an extent, that one seeing the 

 lieaps it can raise would almost doubt whether so 

 small an insect could have been the workman. Mr. 

 Wallace has seen elevations of this kind twenty feet 

 square and three feet high, which contained many tons 

 of earth. " These hillocks are riddled with holes in 

 every direction, and into them the ants may be seen 

 dragging little circular pieces of leaf, wliich they cut 

 off from particular trees which they prefer. Orange 

 trees and Icgumijious shrubs sutler most from tlieir 

 ravages, and these they will sometimes entirely strip 

 of their loaves in a night or two. Young plants, too, 

 of every kind suller very much, and cannot be grown 

 in many places on account of them. They remain in 

 one locality for a long time ; for, on my observing to 

 a gentleman at a cattle estate near Para how remark- 

 ably the track of these ants was worn down across a 

 pathway and through grass, ho informed me that he 

 had observed them marching along that very track for 

 fllteen or twenty years." Mr. Wallace continues, that 

 the insects which do this are the neuters, who employ 



• !-ee l\Ir. Smith's paper in the Joarnal of Entomology, 

 p. G6; 1860. 



in this way their tremendous jaws. They come into the 

 houses at night, and often swarm there, crawling over 

 the supper table, and carrying off any fragments that 

 may have been left. Should any cloth or handkerchief 

 be left on the gi'ound, with anything eatable wrapped 

 up in it, the housekeeper will be sure to find it cut with 

 semicircular boles iu every direction, as regularly as if it 

 had been done with scissors. IMr. Wallace found, that 

 it was the female of this ant which furnishes the Indian 

 with a luxurious repast. At one time of year the 

 female ants come out of their boles in such numbers 

 tliat they are caught by basketsful. Tliere is great 

 stir and excitement in the neighbourhood of the Indian 

 village, when this takes place. Mr. AVallace describes 

 the young men, women, and children, as going out to 

 catch sailhas — for so they call them — with baskets 

 and calabashes, which they soon fill. Tlie female ants, 

 although furnished with wings, are very sluggish, and 

 seldom, if ever, fly. " The part eaten is the abdomen, 

 which is very rich and fatty from the mass of unde- 

 veloped eggs. They are eaten alive ; the insect being 

 held by the head as we hold a strawberry by its stalk, 

 and the abdomen being bitten off, the body (of course, 

 Mr. Wallace refers to the thorax), wings, and legs, are 

 thrown down on the floor, where they continue to 

 crawl along apparently unaware of the loss of their 

 posterior extremities. They are kept in calabashes or 

 bottle-shaped baskets, the mouths of which are stopped 

 up with a few leaves; and it is rather a singular sight 

 to see for the first time an Indian taking his breakfast 

 in the saiiha season. He opens the basket, and as the 

 great winged ants crawl slowly out, ho picks them up 

 carefully, and transfers them, with alternate handfuls 

 of fiirina, to his mouth." Mr. Wallace adds, that when 

 the Indians catch great quantities, they roast them 

 slightly or smoke them, and then sprinkle a little salt 

 on them. In this state they are generally much liked 

 by Europeans.* 



ANOMMA ARCENS— the Driver Ant of Western 

 Africa— fig. 50. We are indebted to the pen and eye of 

 the Rev. Thomas Savage, an American missionary on 

 the coast of West Africa, for an account of this very 

 interesting ant. This species is well called Driver; 



Fig. 56. 



Driver ant. 



for it not only travels and visits in common with other 



species of ants, but it also drives everything before it 



capable of muscular motion, so formidable is it from 



t Trans. Ent. Soc, second series, vol. ii., p. 243. 



