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black creatures crawled up their trouper's legs, under their 
shirts and streamed over their faces. Many of the boys 
were severely bitten and stung. 
Dr. Mann, leading the Smithsonian-Firestone Expedition 
into the Liberian back country, searching for rare animals, 
birds and reptiles for the National collection said, “The 
battle in the forest depths might have been preliminary to 
the eventual life-and-oeath struggle between men and in- 
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man included, is safe against its insatiable appetite for 
raw flesh, living or dead. The only defense in most cases 
]S to abandon camp, house or other quarters and leave 
everything to these myriads of relentless soldiers. They 
also drive out all mice, rats, lizards and other pests. They 
have been known to devour alive the largest and most 
venomous snakes, especially if the snake is sluggish after 
a heavy meal. 
• ...... 
They have perfect regimentation, as they march toward, 
a certain spot like a never-ending stream. Column^ after 
column they surge onward, destroying every' living thing » 
in their path. They are like black-uniformed, cruel troops, § 
bent on destruction. Their alignment and discipline is 
more perfect than that of an army of men. 
Most vicious of insects, the legionary' ant is absolutely 
blind, but whole armies move forward as a single organism, 
every movement systematically regulated. They obey the 
mysterious order of mass instinct. They never retreat, but 
p- ; flow always forward, dying as they march and fight. 
They have no fixed habitation, but establish temporary 
camps wherever they can find shelter. Constantly on the 
march at night, they cannot endure the sun’s ray's. In 
the gloom of hack night or on very cloudy’ day’s they’ keep 
going steadily’. When the sun is high they rest in the 
CitViccs of rocks, holes in the ground or * under roots. 
An army consists of hundreds of thousands of individual, 
ants. The fighters are the workers, ranging from the dan¬ 
gerous, flesh-tearing soldiers almost an inch long to the 
milder and less harmful forms with an astonishing aptitude 
for strenuous camp duties. Migrating columns carry their • 
queen, immature young and camp followers. The queen is 
harmless. The males grow’ to approximately two inches. The 
soldier ants have tearing jaw’s that inflict painful wounds. 
The sturdy, fierce, antagonistic soldiers often intertwine 
their bodies into the shape of an arch under w’hieh the more 
delicate workers perambulate and are able to carry out 
their bit of destruction, being fully’ protected. The ants 
bridge rivers and streams by forming links to one an- 
other. They make themselves into a ball which rolls as it 
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floats in the w’ater and keeps them from drowning. 
The driver ants are amor\g: the most conspicious crea- 
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lures in the tropics, but little is known about them. With- 
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out a directing* brain and totally blind they are the most 
perfectly coordinated soldiers of nature and move on 
relentlessly, obliterating all obstruction. 
Since hordes of legionary ants can cause so much de¬ 
struction, Dr. Howard believes that man should be on the 
alert a gainst tile insect world in general. 
“If inanity has created conditions peculiarly’ favorable 
o ce:' rin kinds of insects,” he says,, “and they are multi¬ 
plying in a jvay that w’ould never have happened had not 
man not only’ giveh them a chance, but provided them with 
enormous quantities of food. In feeding his own rapidly 
increasing millions man at the same time has fed rapidly 
increasing billions of insects. In the United States alone 
the labor of a million men annually goes for naught, since 
the results are consumed by insects.” 
Pr. Howard does not believe that insects will ever gain 
-ijpj -macy, but it w ill be a fight to the fin.sh. 
Insects are more hardy. Their muscles are protected'by 
a shell-like skeleton, while human muscles are exposed to 
the slightest injury. Starches and other substances re¬ 
quired by these skeletons abound in nature w’hile man’s diet 
must include proteins and inorganic materials like lime and 
phosphates for bone growth. The insect has great advan¬ 
tage over humans, particularly in rapid multiplication, in 
size, in amazing productiveness, powers of concealment and 
rapidity’ of flight. 
“Intelligence will win out.” Dr. Howard adds as a more 
cheerful note, “but the human species must concentrate 
