ANTS AND THEIR HELPLESS CHILDREN. 297 
Central America can, however, boast of at least 
one purely vegetarian ant — namely, the " leaf-cutting 
ant."* These active little creatures devastate whole 
forests by tearing the leaves with their mandibles 
and carrying off pieces about the size of a sixpence 
into their nest, and Mr. Beltf found that these 
leaves are probably used for manure, upon which 
a minute fungus grows inside the nest and forms 
the ant food. These ants are decidedly clever, 
for when they were changing their nests once, and 
had to get their cocoons down a slope, Mr. Belt saw 
one set of workers bring them to the top and roll 
them down, while another set picked them up at the 
bottom. Another ant, which is housed and fed in 
a most peculiar manner, inhabits the Bull's -horn 
thorn-tree. This ant lives in the hollow thorns of 
the tree, sipping the honey which exudes from a 
gland at the base of the leaves, and in return, as it 
stings terribly, it protects its friend the tree from the 
attacks of the leaf-cutting ant. 
The foraging or " army ants "J of Central America, 
on the other hand, subsist entirely on insects and 
other animal food, and travel in great hordes from 
place to place, clearing the country as they go, and 
living in hollow trees and fallen trunks on their road. 
Cockroaches, crickets, spiders, locusts, wood - lice, 
centipedes, and scorpions, all fall a prey to this huge 
moving army, often three or four yards wide, and 
the natives call it the "blessing of God," because 
I he ants swarm into their houses, and by the time 
they leave every insect is cleared away. The army 
consists not only of dark workers and soldiers with 
* CEcodoma. t Naturalist in Nicaragua, 1874. X Eciton. 
