Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v1.djvu/42

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24
PARÁ.
Chap. I.

vary in size from two to seven lines; some idea of them may be obtained from the accompanying wood-cut. The true working-class of a colony is formed by the small-

Saüba or Leaf-carrying ant.—1, Worker-minor; 2, Worker-major;
3, Subterranean worker.


sized order of workers, the worker-minors as they are called (Fig. 1). The two other kinds, whose functions, as we shall see, are not yet properly understood, have enormously swollen and massive heads; in one (Fig. 2), the head is highly polished; in the other (Fig. 3), it is opaque and hairy. The worker-minors vary greatly in size, some being double the bulk of others. The entire body is of very solid consistence, and of a pale reddish-brown colour. The thorax or middle segment is armed with three pairs of sharp spines; the head, also, has a pair of similar spines proceeding from the cheeks behind.

In our first walks we were puzzled to account for large mounds of earth, of a different colour from the surrounding soil, which were thrown up in the plantations and woods. Some of them were very extensive, being forty yards in circumference, but not more than