FOEAGING ANTS. 363 



" Apart from the interest attached to nests of this description, 

 no examples of which had been, as far as I am aware, obtained by 

 any naturalist, their beauty of colouring is so remarkable, as to 

 render them objects of general admiration. If, too, as I appre- 

 hend must have been the case, the workers belonging to the 

 colony of V. vulgaris mistook their neighbours' house for their 

 own, the entrances being so near together, it is rather extraordi- 

 nary that those belonging to the other species should not have 

 made a similar mistake. They appeared, however, not to have 

 done so, or if they did, the mistake must have been rectified as 

 often as it occurred, for no work of theirs was to be found in the 

 nest of V. vulgaris!' 



Before closing the history of the wasps, I may mention that 

 the two species, Vcspa germanica and Vespa vulgaris are so 

 similar to each other in shape and colour, that an unpractised 

 eye cannot readily discern the distinction between them. Speci- 

 mens of both these wasps are now before me, and when placed 

 side by side the difference is clearly evident. The yellow colour 

 predominates in the former insect, and the dark bands of the 

 abdomen are much narrower. In the female Yespa. germanica, 

 there are three black spots on the basal margin of the first seg- 

 ment of the abdomen. 



Ix Mr. Bates's valuable work on the natural history of the 

 Amazons, there is an interesting account of tlie proceedings of 

 certain ants belongiug to the genus Eciton, and which are 

 popularly classed together under the name of Foraging Ants. 

 These insects have often been confounded with the Saiiba or 

 parasol ant, which has already been described, although they 

 belong to different groups and have different habits. The native 

 name for them is Tauoca. There are many species belonging to 

 this genus, and I shall therefore restrict myself to those which seem 

 to have the most interesting habits, giving at the same time a 

 general sketch of their character. I regret that, as in so many 

 other cases, the lack of pop^ilar names forces me to employ the 

 scientific titles by which the insects are known to naturalists. 



Although in the Ecitons there are the three classes of males, 

 females, and neuters, these neuters are not divided into two dis- 

 tinct sets as in the termites, but are found in regular gradations 

 fif size. Tlie real Foraging .Vnt is Eciion drcpo.noplwra, and it 



