GREEN ANT. 



253 



also made by an ant, called (Ecophylla virescens. Travellers 

 know it by the name of the Gkeen Ant ; a title which is very 

 insufficient, as it embraces several other species. The name of 

 OEcophylla is compounded of two Greek words, the former 

 signifying a house, and the second a leaf, and is given to this 

 insect because it makes its home of dead leaves. 



This ant is sometimes very troublesome to travellers, who 

 may unconsciously disturb one of the nests that hang among the 

 branches, nearly concealed by the leaves. The ants come patter- 

 ing down like haU-drops, and in a moment he will be covered with 

 a whole swarm of them, seeking for unprotected parts which they 

 can wound, and having a special faculty for getting down the neck. 



The nest is about eight inches in diameter, and is made in 

 a very singular manner. The general mass of its substance is 

 composed of leaves which have been cut by the ants and masti- 

 cated until they form a coarse pulp, something like that which 

 is made by the wasp and hornet, except that the material is 

 green leaves instead of wood fibres. With this substance the 

 nest is formed, and is hung among the thickest foliage, being 

 sustained not only by the branches, but by the leaves, which are 

 worked into the nest and in many parts project from its outer 

 wall. The outside of the nest is easily to be distinguished from 

 that of the Crematogaster by the smoothness and regularity of 

 its walls. A species of this genus inhabits Africa, and was dis- 

 covered by Mr. Foxcroft, who noticed that whenever the ants 

 were disturbed, they ran about the outside of their nest so fast 

 and in such numbers, that their pattering steps on the papery 

 covering of the nest deluded him into the idea that rain was 

 falling on the leaves above. 



Before describing the third nest in the illustration, which is 

 the workmanship of a wasp, I will briefly mention one or two 

 remarkable instances of pensile nests made by ants. One species, 

 Formica Mspirwsa, which inhabits Central America, makes use 

 of the silk-cotton which is produced by the seed-vessels of the 

 cotton-tree {Bombax ceiba), and makes it into a sponge-like mass, 

 which much resembles amadou, and, like that substance, is ex- 

 tremely valuable for stopping violent discharges of blood. 



Another ant, Formica -merdicola, rivals the Myrmica Kirbii in 

 the singularity of the material which it uses in the construction 



