3 2 
INSECTS. 
habits are alluded to above, inhabits the highlands of Mexico and South Colorado. 
The nest is constructed in the ground, usually beneath hillocks, in a gravelly soil, 
and contains passages and chambers arranged in different storeys, some for food, 
others for the larvae, and the third for the honey-pots. The inhabitants condemned 
to servitude in the honey-secreting department of this community are never 
allowed out. An allied species is found in Australia. Still more curious is the 
South American satiba, or parasol-ant {(Ecodoma cephaiotes), dreaded on account 
of the havoc it works amongst the foliage of plantations. Agriculture, too, becomes 
next to impossible where these destructive insects abound. They are not without 
their uses, however, for the Indians regard the females when full of eggs as a 
delicacy. Seizing the insects by the thorax, they nip off the luscious morsel with 
their teeth, much as we may see monkeys behave towards a fly. The nests of this 
species are prodigious. Bates speaks of hills forty yards in circumference, or about 
twelve yards across, while others are of even larger size. This hill, huge as it is, 
is merely the outer covering of a network of galleries extending deep and far into 
the ground, with many outlets into the surrounding country, usually carefully 
secured. The workers, of which there are two forms, look after the progeny and 
gather food; while the soldiers, with broad heads and terrible jaws, sally forth if 
danger threatens their citadel. The stronger workers march in daily procession 
to the plantations in search of leaves, and return, each with a piece securely held 
in its jaws. The more slightly built remain at home, engaged in the less arduous 
operations of domestic economy, and rarely venture far from their nest. These 
leaf-cutting expeditions are directed chiefly against coffee- and orange-plantations, 
and the ants, accompanied by a detachment of soldiers, partly no doubt to keep 
order, and more especially to guard the caravan against freebooters, march in 
large columns to the groves, climb the trees, and begin to reap their daily harvest. 
Each ant having cut with its toothed mandibles a piece of leaf half an inch in 
diameter, descends the tree, holds its booty high in the air, edge upwards, and so 
homewards. The leaf-discs thus held above their heads have earned for these 
insects the name of “ parasol-ants.” The path they travel on is soon beaten down 
with footsteps, and worn till it becomes a deep groove; but even height does 
not end their activity and mischief, for they make raids on the houses of the 
planters in search of groceries and sweetstuffs, appearing often in swarms. There 
are several species of this genus with similar habits, and all are known by the 
natives of Brazil under the single name saiiba. An illustration of one of the leaf- 
cutting expeditions returning homewards is given in the illustration on p. 31 . 
Family MUTILLIDJS, etc. 
The species included in the families Mutillidce, TJiynnidce, and Scoliidce, 
number from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred. The females of members of the 
first two are wingless, while those of all three families possess a formidable poison¬ 
sting. Of the European Mutilla ewropcea, the males may be seen, though not 
commonly, amongst flowers, and frequenting foliage infested with aphides. The 
wingless female may, however, often be met with on sandy commons in summer. 
The larvae are found in the nests of humble-bees, where they feed upon the grubs. 
