Our Six-footed Rivals. 
[October, 
448 
is as a manure, on which grows a minute species of fungus 
on which they feed,-— that they are, in reality, mushroom 
growers and eaters. The reasons for this view are given in 
detail in Mr. Belt’s work, and appear very satisfactory. 
But Mr. Bates’s view may be correct also. In short, save 
man alone, there is no creature which can effeCt such wide- 
spread and profound alterations in the condition of a country 
as the tiny ant. It has been indeed mentioned in the 
“ Quarterly Journal of Science ” that the pig, the goat, and 
the rabbit have succeeded in extirpating the natural flora, 
and consequently to a great extent the fauna, of certain 
islands, such as St. Helena. Yet this takes place only in 
countries where there are no carnivorous beasts, birds, and 
reptiles to keep them in check. But in every warm and 
fruitful climate the ant is king. This power we perceive is 
not due to mere numbers; it is in great part the result of or- 
ganisation. Other species of inseCIs are perhaps even more 
numerous, and, individually considered, as capable of 
destructive aCtion ; but locusts, potato-beetles, mosquitoes, 
noisome as they may be considered, are, in comparison with 
ants, what a promiscuous mob is in comparison with a well- 
trained and organised army. Each ant, like an experienced 
soldier, knows — whether rationally or instinctively it matters 
not — that it will be systematically supported by its com- 
rades. What would be the prospeCts of agriculture in 
Western Asia, in Northern Africa, or in the Western States 
of the American Union, if the locusts when engaged in de- 
solating a field were to attack, en masse, any man or bird 
who should interfere with them ? But, on the contrary, 
they allow themselves to be slaughtered in detail, each 
indifferent to the fate of his neighbour. 
Ants evince that close mutual sympathy which to an 
equal extent can be traced probably in man alone, and which 
has in both these cases proved one of the primary factors in 
the development of civilisation. Had man been devoid of 
this impulse he would have remained a mere wandering 
savage — perhaps a mere anthropoid, occurring as a rare 
species in equatorial districts. Without a similar impulse 
the Ecitons would have ranked among the many solitary 
species of Hymenoptera. Of the mutual helpfulness of 
these same Ecitons Mr. Belt gives us some most interesting 
cases which came under his own observation : — “ One day 
when watching a small column of these ants ( Eciton hamata) 
I placed a little stone on one of them to secure it. The 
next that approached, as soon as it discovered its situ- 
ation, ran backwards in an agitated manner, and soon 
