458 J. C. BRANNER — GEOLOGIC WORK OF ANTS 



depopulated by ants of this kind. This statement seems so remarkable 

 that it is quoted here at length i^^ 



"Aveyros was deserted a few years before my visit on account of this little 

 tormentor {formiga de fogo), and the inhabitants had only recently returned 

 to their houses, thinking its numbers had decreased. It is a small species, of 

 a shining reddish colour, not greatly differing from the common red stinging 

 ant of our own country (Myrmica riihra), except that the pain and irritation 

 caused by its sting are much greater. The soil of the whole village is under- 

 mined by it ; the ground is perforated with the entrances to their subterranean 

 galleries, and a little sandy dome occurs here and there, where the insects 

 bring their young to receive warmth near the surface. The houses are over- 

 run with them ; they dispute every fragment of food with the inhabitants, and 

 destroy clothing for the sake of the starch. AW eatables are obliged to be 

 suspended in baskets from the rafters and the cords well soaked with copauba 

 balsam, which is the only means known of preventing them from climbing. 

 They seem to attack persons out of sheer malice; if we stood for a few mo- 

 ments in the street, even at a distance from their nests, we were sure to be 

 overrun and severely punished, for the moment an ant touched the flesh he 

 secured himself with his jaws, doubled in his tail, and stung with all his 

 might. When we were seated on chairs in the evenings in front of the house 

 to enjoy a chat with our neighbors, we had stools to support our feet, the legs 

 of which, as well as those of the chairs, were well anointed with the balsam. 

 The cords of hammocks are obliged to be smeared with the balsam in the same 

 way to prevent the ants from paying sleepers a visit." 



In order to give a clear understanding of the seriousness of the bite of 

 these ants, I quote the following from Dr. Eichard Spruce's personal ex- 

 perience of them : 



"Aug. 15, 1853. — Yesterday I had the pleasure for the first time of ex- 

 periencing the sting of the large black ant called tucandera in Lingoa 

 Geral. . . . 



"I had gone after breakfast to herborise in the caapoera north of San Carlos, 

 where there were a good many decayed trunks and stumps. I stooped down 

 to cut off a patch of a moss on a stump, and remarked that by so doing I ex- 

 posed a large hollow in the rotten wood; but when I turned me to put the 

 moss into my vasculum I did not notice that a string of angry tucandera s 

 poured out of the opening I had made. I was speedily made aware of it by a 

 prick in the thigh, which I supposed to be caused by a snake until, springing 

 up, I saw that my feet and legs were being covered by the dreaded tucandera. 

 There was nothing but flight for it, and I accordingly ran off as quickly as I 

 could among the entangling branches, and finally succeeded in beating off the 

 ants, but not before I had been dreadfully stung about the feet, for I wore only 

 slippers without heels, and these came off in the struggle. I was little more 

 than five minutes' walk from my house, . . . and I wished to walk rapidly, 

 but could not. I was in agonies, and had much to do to keep from throwing 



1 



20 Naturalist on the Amazons, p. 205. 



