(Ecoboma INSECTS. Anomma. 183 
a nest of some peaceful and industrious species of 
Foi'mica. The Ecitons crowd into the nests of the ants, 
each seizing upon a helpless victim, and carry or drag 
it out of the nest ; if the ant prove too heavy for a 
single Eciton to carry, it is ruthlessly torn into pieces, 
two or more assisting in the operation. The march is 
then commenced back to the nest of the Eciton, the 
living ants and the mangled remains of others being 
probably conveyed there, for the purpose of feeding the 
young brood of the marauders.” 
In every nest there are two distinct forms of workers. 
In the Eciton hamatum the larger worker or soldier 
is furnished with long, curved, sickle-shaped mandibles. 
There are about five of these soldiers to every hundred 
of the smaller individuals. 
A curious genus of ants has been described, called 
Pseudomyrma, distinguished by its elongated form, 
petiolated abdomen, and by the large eyes in both sexes ; 
these organs in many species occupying the whole side 
of the head. Most of the species excavate the pith from 
dried twigs ; the eggs are laid in the burrows thus 
formed, and the young brood developed.* The com- 
munities are not very populous, as they frequently 
consist of not more than twenty, exclusive of larvae 
and pupae. I'he Pseudomyrma termitaria takes up its 
abode in the nests of different species of white ants 
{Termes), while others form small elliptical chambers 
in the outer walls of the tumuli of the white ants, a 
single colony only apparently occupying each chamber ; 
these are generally wide apart. The pupae of Pseudo- 
myrma do not spin cocoons. The insects, when out 
of the nest, are to be seen coursing rapidly over trees 
and herbage. The sting is very slight. 
THE GREAT-HEADED RED ANT {(Ecodoma cephalo- 
fes) is mentioned by Mr. Alfred Wallace as one of the 
insects used by the Indians of the Amazon for food. 
It inhabits the whole district of the Amazon, and is 
found generally over Brazil in sandy districts and 
places where red earth is found. The nests of this 
species are formed in woods and in gardens, where it 
turns up the soil to such an extent, that one seeing the 
heaps it can raise would almost doubt whether so 
small an insect could have been the workman. Mr. 
Wallace has seen elevations of this kind twenty feet 
square and three feet high, which contained many tons 
of earth. “These hillocks are riddled with holes in 
every direction, and into them the ants may be seen 
dragging little circular pieces of leaf, which they cut 
off from particular trees which they prefer. Orange 
trees and leguminous shrubs suffer most from their 
ravages, and these they will sometimes entirely strip 
of their leaves in a night or two. Young plants, too, 
of every kind suffer very much, and cannot be grown 
in many places on account of them. They remain in 
one locality for a long time ; for, on my observing to 
a gentleman at a cattle estate near Para how remark- 
ably the track of these ants was worn down across a 
pathway and through grass, he informed me that he 
had observed them marching along that very track for 
fitteen or twenty years.” Mr. Wallace continues, that 
the insects which do this are the neuters, who employ 
* See Mr. Smith’s paper in the Journal of Entomology, 
p. 66; 1860. 
in this way their tremendous jaws. They come into the 
houses at night, and often swarm there, crawling over 
the supper table, and carrying off any fragments that 
may have been left. Should any cloth or handkerchief 
be left on the ground, with anything eatable wrapped 
up in it, the housekeeper will be sure to find it cut with 
semicircular holes in every direction, as regularly as if it 
had been done with scissors. Mr. Wallace found, that 
it w'as the female of this ant which furnishes the Indian 
with a luxurious repast. At one time of year the 
female ants come out of their holes in such numbers 
that they are caught by basketsful. There is great 
stir and excitement in the neighbourhood of the Indian 
village, when this takes place. Mr. Wallace describes 
the young men, women, and children, as going out to 
catch saiihas — for so they call them — with baskets 
and calabashes, which they soon fill. The female ants, 
although furnished with wings, are very sluggish, and 
seldom, if ever, fly. “ The part eaten is the abdomen, 
which is very rich and fatty from the mass of unde- 
veloped eggs. They are eaten alive ; the insect being 
held by the head as we hold a strawberry by its stalk, 
and the abdomen being bitten off, the body (of course, 
Mr. Wallace refers to the thorax), wings, and legs, are 
thrown down on the floor, where they continue to 
crawl along apparently unaware of the loss of their 
posterior extremities. They are kept in calabashes or 
bottle-shaped baskets, the mouths of which are stopped 
up with a few leaves; and it is rather a singular sight 
to see for the first time an Indian taking his breakfast 
in the saiiba season. He opens the basket, and as the 
great winged ants crawl slowly out, he picks them up 
carefully, and transfers them, with alternate handfuls 
of farina, to his mouth.” Mr. Wallace adds, that when 
the Indians catch great quantities, they roast them 
slightly or smoke them, and then sprinkle a little salt 
on them. In this state they are generally much liked 
by Europeans.* 
ANOMMA ARCENS— the Driver Ant of Western 
Africa — fig. 56. We are indebted to the pen and eye of 
the Rev. Thomas Savage, an American missionary on 
the coast of West Africa, for an account of this very 
interesting ant. This species is well called Driver; 
Fig. 56. 
for it not only travels and visits in common with other 
species of ants, but it also drives everything before it 
capable of muscular motion, so formidable is it from 
f Trans. Ent. Soc., second series, vol. ii., p. 243. 
