A JUNGLE LABOR-UNION 155 
the Attas rejoice, and straightway desert the na- 
tive vegetation to fall upon the newcomers. 
Their whims and irregular feeding habits make 
it difficult to guard against them. They will 
work all round a garden for weeks, perhaps pass 
through it en route to some tree that they are de- 
foliating, and then suddenly, one night, every 
Atta in the world seems possessed with a desire 
to work havoc, and at daylight the next morning, 
the garden looks like winter stubble—a vast ex- 
panse of stems and twigs, without a single re- 
maining leaf. Volumes have been written, and 
a whole chemist’s shop of deadly concoctions de- 
vised, for combating these ants, and still they go 
steadily on, gathering leaves which, as we shall 
see, they do not even use for food. 
Although essentially a tropical family, Attas 
have pushed as far north as New Jersey, where 
they make a tiny nest, a few inches across, and 
bring to it bits of pine needles. 
In a jungle Baedeker, we should double-star 
these insects, and paragraph them as “Atta, 
named by Fabricius in 1804; the Kartabo species, 
cephalotes; Leaf-cutting or Cushie or Parasol 
Ants; very abundant. Ata, a subgenus of Atta, 
which is a genus of Attii, which is a tribe of Myr- 
