356 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. Y. 
trotted along empty-handed, now turned to assist their 
comrades with their heavy loads, and the whole descended 
into a spacious gallery or mine, opening on the top of 
the termitarium. I did not try to reach the nest, which 
I supposed to lie at the bottom of the broad mine, and 
therefore in the middle of the base of the stony hillock. 
Eciton drepanophora. — The commonest species of 
foraging ants are the Eciton hamata and E. drepano- 
phora, two kinds which resemble each other so closely 
that it requires attentive examination to distinguish 
Foraging ants (Eciton drepanophora). 
them ; yet their armies never intermingle, although 
moving in the same woods and often crossing each 
other's tracks. The two classes of workers look, at first 
sight, quite distinct, on account of the wonderful amount 
of difference between the largest individuals of the one, 
and the smallest of the other. There are dwarfs not 
more than one-fifth of an inch in length, with small 
heads and jaws, and giants half an inch in length with 
monstrously enlarged head and jaws, all belonging to 
