1274 The Zoologist — July, 1868. 



motion, seeming to perform their daily work with great reluctance: 

 they are often found crowding in each other's way about the gates of 

 the city, and do not seem to feel any interest in what they are doing, 

 which is to cany sand day by day : for their size they carry large 

 loads, but they lose the advantage of the big loads by their slow 

 motions. The larger types of this species, which move with greater 

 celerity, pay no attention to the sand-carriers, but pass out and in, 

 walking over them and their big loads of sand as if they were the 

 pavement. While I observe the slow, careless action of these lazy 

 little mound builders, I cannot avoid the conclusion that they are 

 slaves. 



As the cutting ants perform their destructive works mostly during 

 the night, I have not made sufficient observation on their nocturnal 

 action to state certainly that they employ their slaves in the leaf- 

 cutting business at all. They have large mandibles and sharp teeth, 

 and I think it likely that they are capable and, perhaps, do participate 

 in the labours and duties of all the departments in the national works. 

 The cutting ants subsist entirely on the leaves of vegetables : they will 

 eat the leaves of various trees, shrubs and some herbaceous plants. 

 I have not observed them eating of any of the grasses. Sometimes 

 during warm spells in winter, when, as I suppose, their provision 

 stores have run short, 1 have seen them cutting and carrying home the 

 buds of the long moss [Tillandgia usueoides). 1 think, however, that 

 this alternative is resorted to only in periods of great scarcity, as I have 

 never observed them collecting the moss during summer, or at any 

 other lime while the season of green foliage continues. They seem to 

 have a regular and well-disciplined corps of foragers, and these, after 

 a suitable tree has been selected by their scouts for them to work at, 

 go forth about twilight, and, ascending the designated tree, frequently 

 the tallest willow-oak [Quercus phellos), commence the work of de- 

 struction. They cut the green leaves into pieces not much less than 

 a five-cent piece, and seizing it near one corner with their capacious 

 mandibles elevate it, and tilling it backwards over the crown of the 

 head, it falls edgewise between two strong spines of horns, which stand 

 erect at the back part of the forehead : having their load thus adjusted, 

 which, to the observer, seems to stand on its edge on top of the head 

 aud lengthwise with the body, they hasten away to the appointed 

 place of deposit. It is quite an interesting sight to observe with what 

 precision and celerity they can edge their piece of leaf along amongst 

 hundreds of their fellow-labourers who are all carrying similar burthens, 



