THE MYRMICA. 
21 I 
these ants into a genus, and asserts that they make slaves of 
other kinds of My r mica, and employ them as workers. There 
appears to be some confusion about the proper name of some of 
the large ants of America, but nevertheless these insects are 
known by popular terms ; and one, which is called the Travelling 
Ant,, and which lives in Brazil, does some good, and at the 
same time a great deal of mischief. One kind, Acadoma cepha- 
lotes, is known by the great size of its workers, which have an 
enormous head and spine behind, and a tuberculated thorax, the 
whole insect being of a blackish-brown colour ; the female, how- 
ever, although very large and of a brown colour, has an ordinary 
sized head. These ants unite in immense numbers, and travel 
long distances, and suddenly appear in houses, and destroy beetles, 
rats, and all the disagreeable things that collect in tropical habi- 
tations. They make their nests with leaves, and Mr. Lund says he 
was once passing near to a tree, the foliage of which was perfect, 
when he was surprised by the leaves falling off it like so much 
rain, although there was no wind ; he went to look at the cause of 
this strange phenomenon, and found an ant working away with all 
its energies upon each leaf stalk. The stalk was soon cut through, 
and the leaf fell to the ground. There was a most curious 
scene going on, however, at the foot of the tree, for the ground 
was covered with ants, which were cutting the leaves in little bits as 
soon as they fell down. In less than an hour the tree yas stripped 
of its foliage, the leaves were cut up, and their pieces carried off. 
The Driver Ants of West Africa are stated by Dr. Baird to 
have no permanent dwellings, as other ants have, but to range 
about in vast armies in quest of prey. They make their excur- 
sions during the night or in very cloudy weather, the hot rays 
of the sun being fatal to them. If obliged to march during 
the day they construct underground arches of clay cemented 
by a fluid secreted from the mouth, and under these arches the 
pupae and the prey are carried by the workers. If on their 
march they are intercepted by a stream of water it is said that 
they throw across it a bridge of their own bodies, over which the 
main column marches with freedom and safety. It is to be hoped 
that if this is true the obliging bridge makers can swim. The 
community is divided into three classes, soldiers to attack and 
O 2 
