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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



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start out again and then disappear in a similar place. At length 

 I was fortunate enough to see the exact spot where the butterfly 

 settled, and, though I lost sight of it for some time, I at length 

 discovered that it was close before my eyes, but that in its posi- 

 tion of repose it so resembled a dead leaf at- 

 tached to a twig as almost certainly to deceive 

 the eye when gazing full upon it." In trop- 

 ical America there are a number of species 

 that have wings so transparent that it is 

 possible to read small print through them. 

 Among the moths the " death's head " of Eu- 

 \ rope is remarkable for having on the top of 

 the thorax the figure of a skull and cross- 

 bones. It is an object of great terror to the 

 Fig. 9.— Umbrella Ant. ignorant classes, and it is said "has more 



than once thrown a whole province into con- 

 sternation, the people thinking it was some infranatural being 

 sent upon the earth as a messenger of pestilence and woe." 



The Hymenoptera, which include the bees, wasps, and ants, 

 contain a number of interesting forms, especially among the ants. 

 The " umbrella ant " of Brazil has a tremendous head in propor- 

 tion to its body, as will be seen by the figure. It has received the 

 name of the umbrella-ant because of its habit of cutting out 

 round pieces of the leaves of orange and coffee trees, which it car- 

 ries by its jaws in an upright posi- 

 tion, so that it looks as though it 

 were utilizing its burden to keep off 

 the heat of the sun. 



The "driver ant" of Africa, the 

 sting of which is compared to the 

 thrust of a red-hot needle, is another 

 interesting subject. These ants are 

 totally blind, and, when an army of 

 them gets on the march, all animal 

 life in their path gets into activity, 

 for woe to any living creature of 

 small and even large size that should 

 fall into their power ! They also en- 

 ter houses, driving the inhabitants 

 from them, but on the return of the 



latter, after the ants have left, they find their place of abode 

 cleared of all vermin ; rats, mice, and all other pests of the house 

 are destroyed by these scavengers. The largest serpents, if gorged, 

 will fall a victim to these remorseless creatures. They have been 

 known, when a stream interrupts their journey, to actually link 

 themselves together and form a floating bridge, over which the 



Fig. 10. — Driver Ant. 



