286 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



covered, produced a titillation more intolerable than 

 pain, except it is increased to great violence."* 



The species called sugar-ants in the West Indies 

 are particularly destructive to the sugar-cane, as well 

 as to lime, lemon, and orange-trees, by excavating 

 their nests at the roots, and so loosening the earth 

 that they are frequently up-rooted and blown down 

 by the winds. If this does not happen, the roots are 

 deprived of due nourishment, and the plants become 

 sickly and die.f 



* Hawkesworth's Account of Cook's First Voyage. 

 t Phil. Trans. xxx. p. 346. 



