FUNGUS ANT. 623 



domen being in ordinary proportion to the thorax and head ; but 

 when she has been fairly installed in her office her abdomen be- 

 gins to enlarge, until it becomes so enormous that she is totally 

 unable to move, and therefore her enforced prison is so far from 

 being a hardship that it is a necessary protection for her huge 

 and soft body, which is several hundred times larger than that of 

 her mate. Large indeed she must be, as she is calculated to pro- 

 duce, on the average, rather more than thirty million eggs. 



Figs. 3, 3 show the- appearance of the royal cell when split open 

 longitudinally, the recess which contains the queen being seen 

 nearly in the centre. All the drawings were taken from speci- 

 mens in the British Museum, and in the cell which is here figured 

 the outline of the queen is quite perceptible, having been im- 

 pressed on the interior of the cell. The mode by which it is en- 

 larged is also shown, a farther enlargement having been begun, 

 but cut short by the demolition of the nest. The cells vary very 

 much in size, probably in accordance with the dimensions of the 

 inclosed queen. I have seen them as large as cocoa-nuts, and of 

 an extraordinary weight, the greater portion of the mass being 

 solid clay. 



The following illustration represents a most singular struc- 

 ture, which is in the collection of the British Museum, and may 

 be seen in the nest-room. 



It is hardly possible to imagine any object which less resembles 

 an insect's nest. It might very well be taken for a sponge, did 

 sponge grow in the forests of Cayenne. It much resembles a 

 fungus, and might be mistaken for an overgrown and partially 

 decayed puff-ball. If inspected closely it seems to be made of 

 the same fungus that furnishes the German tinder, and is indeed, 

 like that substance, very useful as a means of stopping the flow 

 of blood. ^ 



The real material, however, of which the nest is made is formed 

 of the short cottony fibres which fill the seed-pods of the cotton- 

 tree {Bomhax ceiba). The fibre is so short that it is incapable of 

 being woven into fabrics, though it might possibly be made use- 

 ful in the manufacture of paper, its texture being peculiarly soft 

 and silky. The only uses to which it is at present applied are 

 stuffing mattresses and pillows, and packing delicate gOods, and 

 heading the tiny poisoned arrows which are projected through 

 the blow-gun of the native. 



