ABUNDANCE OF THE TKUE ANTS . 453 



graphs, besides being of various inconvenient sizes. The illustrations 

 are given because it is felt that they are the most impressive and most 

 trustworthy witnesses one can put in evidence regarding the subject. 



The true Ants 

 abundance 



Atlhough ants are not everywhere equally abundant in tropical South 

 America, their numbers are so large on an average as to promptly attract 

 the attention of travelers, even when they do not excite their wonder. 

 Kesidents, who might be expected to have conservative views on the sub- 

 ject, often speak of them as the owners of the land. Such a remark is at 

 first regarded as merely facetious, but the character of some of the writers 

 who make it entitles it to serious consideration. As long ago as 1648 

 Piso said that the Portuguese not inappropriately called the ant the 

 "king of Brazil.''^ 



One naturalist who spent some time in the country says, "Brazil is one 

 great ants' nest."^ 



Belt says, "They are one of the greatest scourges of tropical America."^ 



A Brazilian traveler, speaking of the region of the upper Eio, Para- 

 guay, says, "The ant and the different kinds of termites own the land."^ 



Another puts it in this fashion : " . . . ants . . . deserve to 

 be considered the actual owners of the Amazon Valley far more than tlie 

 red or the white man.''® 



Another writer says of them : "One seriously asks whether they are not 

 the real conquerors of Brazil."^*^ 



These characterizations are all so sweeping that, taken alone, they are 

 open to the suspicion of being merely picturesque and extravagant ebulli- 

 tions rather than serious and truthful statements of fact. If they are 

 based on some knowledge of the ants, these expressions seem to spring 

 from more or less personal animosity toward those insects. And yet this 

 very animosity, if it really exists, must come from a pretty uniform per- 



s Formicse autem hse (Ret/ do Brasil Lusitanis non immerito dictse, quod perpetuam 

 tyrannidem exerceant) aliquse Enropsearum plane similes, aliquae triple majores & alatae, 

 omnivorse sunt. 



De Aeribus, Aquis, & Locis. Gvilielmi Pisonis Historise Naturalis & Medicse, p. 9. 

 Amsterdam, 1658. 



« Rev. H. Clark : Letters home from Spain, etc., pp. 131, 173. London, 1867. 



7 Thomas Belt : The naturalist in Nicaragna, p. 79. London, 1874. 



8 Dr. Joao Severiano da Fonseca. Viagem ao redor do Brazil, vol. i, p. 352. Rio de 

 Janeiro, 1880. 



3 Richard Spruce : Notes of a botanist on the Amazon and Andes, vol. ii, p. 366. Lon- 

 don, 1908. 



" Adolph d'Assier : Revue des Deux Mondes, vol. xllx, p. 582. Paris, 1864. 



