NOTES ON THE BUTTERFLIES


in the forest and I have seen many fatalities from
their bites.
 Sugaring or treacling for moths, as it
is practised in Europe, I have never attempted,
partly from fear of snakes, but more because I
do not think it would prove successful. I feel
sure that the patch of sugar on the tree would
be scarcely applied before it would become a
seething mass of voracious ants, and what chance
would a moth or beetle have among them ?
 The ants of this Colony are worthy of a special
study. They are everywhere, in your house and
in the forest, even on board boats and ships.
They attack your food, and at least one kind, the
" Marching Army as it is called, will attack
and probably kill you if you remain in the area
of its foraging parties.
 I have observed that there are very many
different kinds of these creatures though I have
never made a study of them. Some are so minute
that they can scarcely be seen. Colonies of these
are found in houses, and being fond of sweet or
greasy food it is tolerably certain that large
numbers of them are regularly consumed by us
at meal times. Another kind lives in the hollow
poisonous thorns of an acacia-like shrub, and woe
to the person who accidentally touches this shrub,
for the dwellers in the prickles are over him like
lightning and they bite very hard. Then there