of transparent paper, like that manufactured by the wasp. I have
watched them at the interesting operation of forming these dwellings;--a
line of ants standing on the edge of one leaf bring another into contact
with it, and hold both together with their mandibles till their
companions within attach them firmly by means of their adhesive paper,
the assistants outside moving along as the work proceeds. If it be
necessary to draw closer a leaf too distant to be laid hold of by the
immediate workers, they form a chain by depending one from the other
till the object is reached, when it is at length brought into contact,
and made fast by cement.

[Footnote 1: _Formica smaragdina,_ Fab.]

Like all their race, these ants are in perpetual motion, forming lines
on the ground along which they pass, in continual procession to and from
the trees on which they reside. They are the most irritable of the whole
order in Ceylon, biting with such intense ferocity as to render it
difficult for the unclad natives to collect the fruit from the mango
trees, which the red ants especially frequent. They drop from the
branches upon travellers in the jungle, attacking them with venom and
fury, and inflicting intolerable pain both upon animals and man. On
examining the structure of the head through a microscope, I found that
the mandibles, instead of merely meeting in contact, are so hooked as to
cross each other at the points, whilst the inner line is sharply
serrated throughout its entire length; thus occasioning the intense pain
of their bite, as compared with that of the ordinary ant.

To check the ravages of the coffee bug[1] (_Lecanium coffeae_, Walker),
which for some years past has devastated some of the plantations in
Ceylon, the experiment was made of introducing the red ants, who feed
greedily on the Coccus. But the remedy threatened to be attended with
some inconvenience, for the Malabar Coolies, with bare and oiled skins,
were so frequently and fiercely assaulted by the ants as to endanger
their stay on the estates.

[Footnote 1: For an account of this pest, see p. 437.]

The ants which burrow in the ground in Ceylon are generally, but not
invariably, black, and some of them are of considerable size. One
species, about the third of an inch in length, is abundant in the hills,
and especially about the roots of trees, where they pile up the earth in
circular heaps round the entrance to their nests, and in doing this I
have observed