SEQUELS 289 
army and leaf-cutters may quite reasonably be 
classified according to Kingdom. The former, 
with carnivorous, voracious, nervous, vitally ac- 
tive members, seems an intangible, animal-like 
organism; while the stolid, vegetarian, unemo- 
tional, weather-swung Attas, resemble the flow- 
ing sap of the food on which they subsist—vege- 
table. 
Yet, whatever the simile, the net of uncon- 
scious precedent is too closely drawn, the mesh 
-of instinct is too fine to hope for any initiative. 
This was manifested by the most significant and 
spectacular occurrence I have ever observed in 
the world of insects. One year and a half ago I 
studied and reported upon, a nest of Ecitons or 
army ants.’ Now, eighteen months later, appar- 
ently the same army appeared and made a simi- 
Jar nest of their own bodies, in the identical spof 
near the door of the out-house, where I had found 
them before. Again we had to break up the tem- 
porary colony, and killed about three-quarters 
of the colony with various deadly chemicals. 
In spite of all the tremendous slaughter, the 
Ecitons, in late afternoon, raided a small colony 
of Wasps-of-the-Painted-Nest. These little 
1See page 58. 
