524 



Brazilian Ants. 



of the troops continued as before. I also observed, that while the 

 transportation of the dead lasted, none of the ants which emerged 

 from the holes were loaded with spoils as before, and it was only- 

 after tranquillity again had been perfectly restored, that the trans- 

 portation of their loads was resumed. But what particularly demands 

 attention, as deciding the part those large individuals play in the 

 society, is, that while the hole which was nearest the place of 

 carnage having only before been surrounded by four of these ani- 

 mals, was after this affair guarded by nine, who all stood in the same 

 singular position. 



I confess that this is the only species of ant in which I observed 

 this phenomenon in a manner so conspicuous ; but I observe in the 

 new edition of Cuviers Regne Animal, that my friend M. Lacordaire, 

 to whom I had the pleasure of communicating these observations dur- 

 ing our meeting in Brazils, has had the opportunity of seeing the same 

 peculiarity in another species, which approaches to Atta cephalotes. 



With the history of our ants is connected that of two other fami- 

 lies of insects, with which ants maintain an intimate intercourse. 

 This connection between different species of insects has astonished 

 observers by that analogy which it presents, with those associations 

 that takes place between man and certain mammalia; thus the 

 leaflies and gall insecta are represented by happy metaphor, as the 

 cows and the goats of the ants — Ant-cows, and ant-goats. 



Having been familiar in Europe with the association of leaflies 

 and ants, which there often excited my astonishment, I was sur- 

 prised at first at the absence of leaflies in Brazils, notwithstanding 

 the extreme multiplicity of ants, and I was on the point of believing 

 that the ants of Brazils were deprived of a source of enjoyment, of 

 which our ants in Europe know how to make such excellent use ; but 

 I was soon convinced that I was very wrong in supposing that the 

 ants of the New World were less fortunate in this respect than their 

 brethren in Europe. For as after the discovery of the New World, 

 we there met with civilised nations, with whom certain species of 

 animals occupied the place of our domesticated animals, so, in like 

 manner, have I found in the small nations, of which we are treating, 

 certain species of domesticated animals, which perform the same 

 part in their ceconomy. 



