418 BIOLOGIC RELATIONS BETWEEN PLANTS AND ANTS. 



same care with which they conceal their cocoons. These facts have 

 resulted from the researches of a Swedish botanist and a myrmecolo- 

 gist, Lundstrom and Adler. By reason of the long tigellus that carries 

 the cotyledons, the Melanvpyrum is well adapted for germinating under 

 stones. The assistance of the ants gives it easy command of this habi- 

 tat which other plants are unable to dispute. The resemblance of the 

 seed of the Melampyrum to the cocoon extends not only to form and 

 color, but also to odor, the seed emitting an ant-like smell. 



Throughout central South America there exists a leaf-cutting or 

 visiting ant, also called the parasol ant, and known by the native as 

 the saiiba. It is the fficodoma cephalotes. These ants construct in woods 

 and plantations quite extensive dome shaped habitations. The domes 

 form the roof of a nest that has passages extending far away into the 

 ground and provided with numerous entrances, usually closed. These 

 ants excavate long galleries, in which they accumulate masses, rela- 

 tively enormous, of fragments of leaves that they have cut from trees. 

 If an ant-hill has been inhabited by a single colony for some years, it 

 may acquire very considerable dimensions. The activity of these ants 

 is so great that they have been seen to pass and repass under a river a 

 quarter of a mile wide. The earth from their digging is spread outside 

 and forms a talus more than 40 feet in circumference and from 1 to 3 

 feet high. 



The workers of this species are of three orders. The main body is 

 formed by a small-sized order of workers with small heads. The large 

 workers are of two kinds, one having a smooth, polished head, with 

 ocelli upon the vertex; the other subterranean, having no ocelli, and, 

 according to Bates, fulfilling, in the depths of the colony, some 

 unknown function; whether they are soldiers is doubtful. 



The small workers and the large workers with smooth, polished heads 

 are a real scourge to cultivators, especially ravaging coffee and orange 

 plantations. The small workers climb upon the trees, stand on the 

 edge of a leaf and, by means of their toothed mandibles, cut from it a 

 semicular piece, leaving only the large nervures. A quarter of an hour 

 suffices for the operation, during which they use their hind feet as a 

 center and point of support. When the section is nearly finished the 

 ant seizes the piece between his mandibles and, by a sharp jerk, 

 detaches it. He then desceuds, carrying his load upright. Sometimes 

 he simplifies his task by dropping his booty to the foot of the tree, 

 where other workers pick it up. 



"When standing upon an eminence," says Ellendorf, "one can see 

 columns of these tiny creatures in compact masses, with their green 

 bannerets above their heads, looking like an enormous green serpent 

 slowly gliding over the ground; and this picture, outlined upon a back- 

 ground of yellowish gray, is made still more striking by the fact that 

 all their bannerets are agitated by slight undulatory motions." 



These ants, by biting the grass close to the ground, make regular 



