she stung the first three segments in the
regular order, the third, the second, and lastly (and most
persistently) the first. She then went on, without a pause, to sting
the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh, stopping at this point and
leaving the posterior segments untouched. In our first example, it
will be remembered, the middle segments were spared. The sting being
completed, she proceeded to the process known as _malaxation_, which
consists in repeatedly squeezing the neck of the caterpillar, or other
victim, between the mandibles, the subject of the treatment being
turned around and around so that all sides may be equally affected.

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