454 
Our Six-footed Rivals . 
[October, 
cockroaches, scorpions, centipedes, venomous spiders, grass- 
hoppers, and even rats and mice that they destroy. They 
keep down serpents, also, by devouring their eggs. The 
plant-eaters, on the contrary, and especially the leaf-cutters, 
are an unalloyed evil, and their destruction ought to be 
attempted in a much more systematic way than what takes 
place at present. Nor can the “ cattle-keeping ” ants be 
tolerated. Even though they may not in their own persons 
attack the fruits and the leaves of useful trees, they compass 
injury to the latter by cherishing and defending swarms of 
such pernicious vermin as the Aphides of temperate regions 
and the scale-inseCts and tree-hoppers of warmer climates. 
All these live by sucking the juices of plants, and over them 
the ants watch with a wonderful care — defending them from 
the attacks of birds, wasps, ichneumons, and other creatures 
who would rid the poor plant of its parasites. They have 
even been known to build galleries of clay over the surface 
of a pine-apple, in order to shelter the Cocci who were 
destroying the fruit. 
Mr. Belt found that a red passion-flower, which secretes 
honey from glands on its young leaves and on the sepals of 
its flower-buds, was carefully guarded by a certain species of 
ant (. Pheidole ), who consumed the honey, and who furiously 
drove off all leaf-cutters and other intruders. But after a 
couple of seasons a colony of parasitical scale-inseCts, which 
secrete honey, established themselves upon the passion- 
flower, to its great injury. The ants transferred their care 
and attention to these, and, from the guardians of the plant, 
became indirectly, but not the less substantially, its enemies. 
This is a striking proof of the untrustworthy character of 
our inseCt — or, more generally speaking, of our animal — 
allies. At one moment they may be defending our property 
from depredation, but on a slight change of circumstances 
their interests may cease to coincide with our own, and they 
may go over to our enemies. The question what animal- 
species we ought to protect and which to destroy, and how 
far we ought to go in each case, becomes on closer inspection 
exceedingly complicated. 
As an example of an omnivorous ant we may take the 
“ fire-ant ” of the Amazon, of which Mr. Bates gives us a 
striking account* : — “ Aveyros may be called the head- 
quarters of the fire-ant, which might be fittingly termed the 
scourge of this fine river. It is found only on sandy soils, 
in open places, and seems to thrive more in the neighbourhood 
* Naturalist on the River Amazon. 
