ANT-SUPPORTING PLANTS. 
33 
dangerous guests, the bite of which is much more painful in 
proportion than the stings of any other insect with which I am 
acquainted. It is a singular thing that, at whatever stage of 
their existence one examines the Triplaris in the forests, one 
is always certain to encounter these ants. It is still more 
curious that in Ruprechtia, which some authors unite with 
Triplaris , they are never met with. I do not think that this 
insect has ever been observed in other conditions than those 
which I have noted ; its linear form is especially adapted to its 
mode of life. I have had occasion to examine it and indeed to 
suffer from its attacks in many parts of Brazil, in Bolivia, and 
in Peru, and it has everywhere appeared to me identical. Many 
travellers have already recorded a portion of the facts in ques- 
tion, and have referred the ant of the Triplaris to Latreille’s 
genus Myrmica , but I am not aware that it has received a spe- 
cific name; that of triplarina may be applied to it. It is 
usually of a clear brown ; its length is six or seven millimetres, 
and its breadth one millimetre ; the abdomen is cylindrical and 
a little attenuated towards its lower extremity, which is hairy.” 
The ants swarm especially in two or three species, notably in 
T. nolitangere (so named by Weddell on this account), which 
is called Formigueira by the Brazilians, T. Bonplandiana , and 
T. Schomburglciana. This last species is described at length 
by Dr. Schomburghk,* but his description adds nothing of im- 
portance to what has been already cited ; he remarks that the 
different tribes of Indians in Guiana call it by names which 
signify “ the ant-tree.” 
The well-known Trumpet- tree ( Cecropia peltata) is also ant- 
inhabited, a fact to which Mr. Belt directs attention in his in- 
teresting “Naturalist in Nicaragua.” As in Triplaris , the 
trunk is hollow, and provided within with partitions answering 
to the position of the leaves on the outside, and it is in the 
spaces between these partitions that the ants congregate. They 
“ gain access by making a hole from the outside, and then bur- 
row through the partitions, thus getting the run of the whole 
stem. They do not obtain their food directly from the tree, but 
keep brown scale-insects ( Coccidce ) in the cells, which suck the 
juices from the tree, and secrete a honey-like fluid that exudes 
from a pore on the back, and is lapped up by the ants. In one 
cell eggs will be found, in another grubs, and in a third pupae, 
all lying loosely. In another cell, by itself, a queen ant will be 
found, surrounded by walls made of a brown waxy-looking sub- 
stance, along with about a dozen coccidce , to supply her with 
food. ... If the tree be shaken, the ants rush out in myriads, 
and search about for the molester. ... I have cut into some 
* “ Annals and Magazine of Natural History,” i. 264. 
VOL. XIV. NO. LIV. D 
