In Addition To This, If Any One Examines
The Orifice By Which The Black Ant Enters His Barracks,
He Will Always Find A Little Heap Of Hard Heads And Legs Of White Ants,
Showing That These Black Ruffians Are A Grade Lower Than Slave-Stealers,
Being Actually Cannibals.
Elsewhere I have seen a body of them
removing their eggs from a place in which they were likely
To be flooded by the rains; I calculated their numbers to be 1260;
they carried their eggs a certain distance, then laid them down,
when others took them and carried them farther on. Every ant in the colony
seemed to be employed in this laborious occupation, yet there was not
a white slave-ant among them. One cold morning I observed
a band of another species of black ant returning each with a captive;
there could be no doubt of their cannibal propensities,
for the "brutal soldiery" had already deprived the white ants of their legs.
The fluid in the stings of this species is of an intensely acid taste.
I had often noticed the stupefaction produced by the injection of a fluid
from the sting of certain insects before. It is particularly observable
in a hymenopterous insect called the "plasterer" (`Pelopaeus Eckloni'),
which in his habits resembles somewhat the mason-bee. It is about
an inch and a quarter in length, jet black in color, and may be observed
coming into houses, carrying in its fore legs a pellet of soft plaster
about the size of a pea.
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