ECITON LEGIONIS 



471 



English red ant (Myrmica rubra), which it also resembles 

 in colour. The Eciton legionis lives in open places, and 

 was seen only on the sandy campos of San tar em. The 

 movements of its hosts were, therefore, much more easy 

 to observe than those of all others kinds, which inhabit 

 solely the densest thickets ; its sting and bite, also, were 

 less formidable than those of other species. The armies 

 of E. legionis consist of many thousands of individuals, 

 and move in rather broad columns. They are just as 

 quick to break Une, on being disturbed, and attack 

 hurriedly and furiously any intruding object as the other 

 Ecitons. The species is not a common one, and I seldom 

 had good opportunities of watching its habits. The first 

 time I saw an army, was one evening near sunset. The 

 column consisted of two trains of ants, moving in opposite 

 directions ; one train empty-handed, the other laden 

 with the mangled remains of insects, chiefly larvae and 

 pupae of other ants. I had no difficulty in tracing the 

 line to the spot from which they were conveying their 

 booty : this was a low thicket ; the Ecitons were moving 

 rapidly about a heap of dead leaves ; but as the short 

 tropical twilight was deepening rapidly, and I had no 

 wish to be benighted on the lonely campos, I deferred 

 further examination until the next day. 



On the following morning, no trace of ants could be 

 found near the place where I had seen them the preceding 

 day, nor were there signs of insects of any description in 

 the thicket ; but at the distance of eighty or one hundred 

 yards, I came upon the same army, engaged, evidently, 

 on a razzia of a similar kind to that of the previous evening ; 

 but requiring other resources of their instinct, owing to 

 the nature of the ground. They were eagerly occupied, 

 on the face of an inclined bank of light earth, in excavating 

 mines, whence from a depth of eight or ten inches, they were 

 extracting the bodies of a bulky species of ant, of the genus 

 Formica. It was curious to see them crowding round 

 the orifices of the mines, some assisting their comrades 

 to lift out the bodies of the Formicas, and others tearing 

 them in pieces, on account of their weight being too great 

 for a single Eciton ; a number of carriers seizing each a 

 fragment, and carrying it off down the slope. On digging 

 into the earth with a small trowel near the entrances of 

 the mines, I found the nests of the Formicae, with grubs 

 and cocoons, which the Ecitons were thus invading, at 



