Brazilian Ants, 



519 



Such is also the case with another insect family, (Necrophaga,) 

 which in Europe performs a more conspicuous part. In the part 

 of South America I now treat of, we do not find these animals ; ants 

 being only met with in decayed animal matters, and the activity 

 with which these small animals execute the extremely important 

 office alloted to them in tropical countries is wonderful. Often 

 have I found on omitting ordinary precautions, the fruits of my 

 labours lost, when for a moment I have put away the box in which 

 I preserved fresh killed insects ; it has even sometimes happened that 

 before I could penetrate the brush wood to take up a bird I had 

 shot, that these gluttonous little animals had already so attacked 

 it, that its skin was rendered useless for stuffing. 



But these animals render important services in destroying noxious 

 insects and animal matters in tropical climates ; yet the destruction 

 they cause in directing their attack against the productions of the ve- 

 getable kingdom is a great drawback from their good services. They 

 are the most dangerous enemies of all kinds of plants, in such degree, 

 that one hardly hears the husbandman complain of any other evil. I 

 may here pass by the mischief they commit in attacking the roots, in 

 quartering themselves in the stem, in destroying fruits, &c. in order 



animals. As I am deficient in observations regarding this case, I will not attempt 

 to say how far this is correct or not; but I take the liberty of quoting a fact, 

 which at first appeared to render it very probably correct. One day while busy in 

 pulling down a termit habitation to examine the inside, I perceived to my great 

 astonishment, that a portion of the dwelling was taken possession of by a kind of 

 ant ( Myrmica paleata, Mihi,^ which as soon as they discovered the attack made on 

 their dwelling, rushed out furiously, dispersed themselves amongst other habitations 

 also over the ruined heaps of that part of their own dwelling; a good many 

 caterpillars happened to lie exposed on top of the ruins of their habitation, and 

 by degrees as the ants met them, they attacked them with great fury, pierced them 

 several times with their sting ; without conveying them when wounded to their 

 nest. This appeared to me in the commencement to the opinion above adverted 

 to, of the antipathy between these animals ; but I soon discovered a circumstance 

 which afforded what appears to me to be a better explanation of this circumstance. 

 I perceived a troop of a different species (M. erythrothorax, M.J which emerging 

 from the same hill, cautiously approaching, and in the midst of blood-shed, deli- 

 berately conveyed the killed and wounded termites to their common habitation 

 without the least excitement. These last ants were merely the reserve troops and 

 slaves to the first ; they were obliged to provide for the victualling of the republic, 

 while those, soldiers by profession, had only its defence in view, and for that reason 

 attacked the termites as they would have attacked any real or feigned enemy they 

 might met with on the road. 



