In our third case a caterpillar which we had caught was placed in front of a wasp just after she had carried the second larva into her nest.  She seemed rather indifferent to it, passing it once or twice as she ran about, but finally picked it up and gave it one prolonged sting between the third and fourth segments.  She then spent a long time in squeezing the neck, pinching it again and again.  It was then left on the ground, and as she showed no further interest in it we carried it home for further study.

In the three captures, then, that came under our observation, all the caterpillars being of the same species and almost exactly of the same size, three different methods were employed.  In the first, seven stings were given at the extremities, the middle segments being left untouched, and no malaxation was practised.  In the second, seven stings again but given in the anterior and middle segments, followed by slight malaxation.  In the third, only one sting was given but the malaxation was prolonged and severe.

[Illustration]

LEAF-CUTTING ANTS

(FROM THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.)

BY THOMAS G. BELT, F.G.S.

[Illustration]

Nearly all travellers in tropical America have described the ravages of the leaf-cutting ants (OEcodoma); their crowded, well-worn paths through the forests, their ceaseless pertinacity in the spoliation of the trees—­more particularly of introduced species—­which are left bare and ragged, with the mid-ribs and a few jagged points of the leaves only left.  Many a young plantation of orange, mango, and lemon trees has been destroyed by them.  Again and again have I been told in Nicaragua, when inquiring why no fruit-trees were grown at particular places, “It is no use planting them; the ants eat them up.”  The first acquaintance a stranger generally makes with them is on encountering their paths on the outskirts of the forest crowded with the ants; one lot carrying off the pieces of leaves, each piece about the size of a sixpence, and held up vertically between the jaws of the ant; another lot hurrying along in an opposite direction empty handed, but eager to get loaded with their leafy burdens.  If he follows this last division, it will lead him to some young trees or shrubs, up which the ants mount; and where each one, stationing itself on the edge of a leaf, commences to make a circular cut, with its scissor-like jaws, from the edge, its hinder-feet being the centre on which it turns.  When the piece is nearly cut off, it is still stationed upon it, and it looks as though it would fall to the ground with it; but, on being finally detached, the ant is generally found to have hold of the leaf with one foot, and soon righting itself, and arranging its burden to its satisfaction, it sets off at once on its return.  Following it again, it is seen to join a throng of others, each laden like itself, and, without a moment’s delay, it hurries along the well-worn path.  As it proceeds, other paths, each thronged with busy workers, come in from the sides, until the main road often gets to be seven or eight inches broad, and more thronged than the streets of the city of London.