Ants and Mites 
the top of the internode, and the ants gnaw an opening 
for themselves at this spot. 
In Malaya there are two species of ferns (Polypodium) 
which grow on tree branches. Their stems or rhizomes, 
which are large and fleshy, are traversed by irregular 
winding passages in which live multitudes of ants. Now 
when this fern is grown so that no ants can reach it, it 
is said still to form such passages, though by no means 
on so extensive a scale. In Malaya the galleries are 
partly excavated by the ants themselves. 
It is probably for the sake of ants that one finds, out- 
side the flowers, honey-glands or nectaries in many of 
our English plants (Vicia stipules, &c.).2 In one of the 
rubber trees (Hevea) such nectaries occur in the bud- 
scales, so that, when the buds are unfolding and the 
foliage is still young and tender, ants come and swarm 
about the buds. But as soon as the leaves are fully 
formed, two honey-glands at the base of each leaf con- 
tinue to keep these formidable insects busy and always 
running over the foliage.? 
One might say that it is ants’ inhumanity to ants that 
makes countless thousands mourn, for it is other insects 
of their own kind that these fierce bodyguards are in- 
tended to keep away. 
The worst are those curious, leaf-cutting forms which 
every South American plantation-owner knows far too 
well. An army of them will at once proceed to his 
cocoa plantation; each insect will then solemnly and 
slowly cut out a neat circle of leaf substance. They 
stand on the leaf and cut round, keeping on the centre 
of the circle, which is said to be almost as exact as if 
made with a pair of compasses. They will then forma 
procession towards home, holding the circle of leaf like 
an umbrella over their heads. 
Now comes, however, the really astonishing part of 
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