Of all the Nicaraguan fauna, judging from the narrative, the ants
occupy the most prominent position. Both indoors and out they are
ever in evidence. Belt describes the foraging ants, which do not
make regular nests of their own, but attack those of other species
and prey upon every killable living thing that comes in their way;
the leaf-cutting ants, whose attacks upon his garden were repelled
with so much difficulty; standing armies of ants maintained by
certain trees for their protection, and many other kinds, some of
which kept his attention constantly on the stretch. Much space is
devoted to their habits and wonderful instincts, amounting in many
cases, so Belt considered, to as clear an evidence of reasoning
intelligence as can be claimed for man himself. Indeed, after
reading the account of their freeing of an imprisoned comrade and
their grappling with problems arising out of such modern inventions
as carbolic acid and tramways, we need not feel surprised if an
observer accustomed to scrutinise the animal world so closely feels
sceptical on the subject of "instinct" viewed as a mysterious
entity antithetically opposed to "reason" and supposed to act as
its substitute in the lower orders.

In reference to their methods of obtaining food, ants have been
classified as hunting, pastoral, and agricultural, "three types,"
as Lord Avebury remarks, "offering a curious analogy to the three
great phases in the history of human development." As regards their
social condition they differ from mankind in having successfully
established communism. At the present day all the social
hymenoptera possess a unique interest on account of their
working-order or neuters. These, as is well-known, are females
whose normal development has been checked. Are we to assume that