LEAF-CARRYING ANT 



17 



in colour from the superficial soil of the vicinity is owing 

 to their being formed of the undersoil, brought up from 

 a considerable depth. It is very rarely that the ants 

 are seen at work on these mounds ; the entrances seem 

 to be generally closed ; only now and then, when some 

 particular work is going on, are the galleries opened. 

 The entrances are small and numerous ; in the larger 

 hillocks it would require a great amount of excavation 

 to get at the main galleries ; but I succeeded in removing 

 portions of the dome in smaller hillocks, and then I found 

 that the minor entrances converged, at the depth of about 

 two feet, to one broad elaborately-worked gallery or mine, 

 which was four or five inches in diameter. 



This habit in the Saiiba ant of clipping and carrying 

 away immense quantities of leaves has long been re- 

 corded in books on natural history. When employed 

 on this work, their processions look like a multitude of 

 animated leaves on the march. In some places I found 

 an accumulation of such leaves, all circular pieces, about 

 the size of a sixpence, lying on the pathway, unattended 

 by ants, and at some distance from any colony. Such 

 heaps are always found to be removed when the place is 

 revisited the next day. In course of time I had plenty 

 of opportunities of seeing them at work. They mount 

 the tree in multitudes, the individuals being all worker- 

 minors. Each one places itself on the surface of a leaf, 

 and cuts with its sharp scissor-like jaws a nearly semi- 

 circular incision on the upper side ; it then takes the 

 edge between its jaws, and by a sharp jerk detaches the 

 piece. Sometimes they let the leaf drop to the ground, 

 where a little heap accumulates, until carried off by 

 another relay of workers ; but, generally, each marches 

 off with the piece it has operated upon, and as all take 

 the same road to their colony, the path they follow be- 

 comes in a short time smooth and bare, looking like the 

 impression of a cart-wheel through the herbage. 



It is a most interesting sight to see the vast host of 

 busy diminutive labourers occupied on this work. Un- 

 fortunately they choose cultivated trees for their pur- 

 pose. This ant is quite peculiar to Tropical America, as 

 is the entire genus to which it belongs ; it sometimes 

 despoils the young trees of species growing wild in its 

 native forests ; but it seems to prefer, when within reach, 

 plants imported from other countries, such as the coffee 



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