478 



ANIMALS OF EGA 



and fallen branches. When its columns have to cross a 

 cleared space, the ants construct a temporary covered 

 way with granules of earth, arched over, and holding 

 together mechanically ; under this the procession passes 

 in secret, the indefatigable creatures repairing their arcade 

 at fast as breaches are made in it. 



Next in order comes the Eciton vastator, which has 

 no eyes, although the collapsed sockets are plainly visible ; 

 and, lastly, the Eciton erratica, in which both sockets 

 and eyes have disappeared, leaving only a faint ring to 

 mark the place where they are usually situated. The 

 armies of E. vastator and E. erratica move, as far as I 

 could learn, wholly under covered roads, the ants con- 

 structing them gradually but rapidly as they advance. 

 The column of foragers pushes forward step by step, 

 under the protection of these covered passages, through 

 the thickets, and on reaching a rotting log, or other 

 promising hunting-ground, pour into the crevices in search 

 of booty. I have traced their arcades, occasionally, for a 

 distance of one or two hundred yards ; the grains of 

 earth are taken from the soil over which the column is 

 passing, and are fitted together without cement. It is 

 this last-mentioned feature that distinguishes them from 

 the similar covered roads made by Termites, who use 

 their glutinous saliva to cement the grains together. The 

 blind Ecitons, working in numbers, build up simultaneously 

 the sides of their convex arcades, and contrive, in a sur- 

 prising manner, to approximate them and fit in the key- 

 stones without letting the loose uncemented structure fall 

 to pieces. There was a very clear division of labour be- 

 tween the two classes of neuters in these blind species. 

 The large-headed class, although not possessing mon- 

 strously-lengthened jaws like the worker-majors in E. 

 hamata and E. drepanophora, are rigidly defined in struc- 

 ture from the small-headed class, and act as soldiers, de- 

 fending the working community (like soldier Termites) 

 against all comers. Whenever I made a breach in one 

 of their covered ways, all the ants underneath were set 

 in commotion, but the worker-minors remained behind 

 to repair the damage, whilst the large-heads issued forth 

 in a most menacing manner, rearing their heads and 

 snapping their jaws with an expression of the fiercest 

 rage and defiance. 



The armies of all Ecitons are accompanied by small 



