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.  When it has fixed upon a convenient spot for its dwelling, it forms a cell about the same length as its body, plastering the walls so as to be quite thin and smooth inside.  When this is finished, all except a round hole, it brings seven or eight caterpillars or spiders, each of which is rendered insensible, but not killed, by the fluid from its sting.  These it deposits in the cell, and then one of its own larvae, which, as it grows, finds food quite fresh.  The insects are in a state of coma, but the presence of vitality prevents putridity, or that drying up which would otherwise take place in this climate.  By the time the young insect is full grown and its wings completely developed, the food is done.  It then pierces the wall of its cell at the former door, or place last filled up by its parent, flies off, and begins life for itself.  The plasterer is a most useful insect, as it acts as a check on the inordinate increase of caterpillars and spiders.  It may often be seen with a caterpillar or even a cricket much larger than itself, but they lie perfectly still after the injection of chloroform, and the plasterer, placing a row of legs on each side of the body, uses both legs and wings in trailing the victim along.  The fluid in each case is, I suppose, designed to cause insensibility, and likewise act as an antiseptic, the death of the victims being without pain.