They stream along
the ground and climb to the summits of all the lower trees,
searching every leaf to its apex, and whenever they encounter a
mass of decaying vegetable matter, where booty is plentiful, they
concentrate, like other Ecitons, all their forces upon it, the
dense phalanx of shining and quickly-moving bodies, as it spreads
over the surface, looking like a flood of dark-red liquid. They
soon penetrate every part of the confused heap, and then,
gathering together again in marching order, onward they move. All
soft-bodied and inactive insects fall an easy prey to them, and,
like other Ecitons, they tear their victims in pieces for
facility of carriage. A phalanx of this species, when passing
over a tract of smooth ground, occupies a space of from four to
six square yards; on examining the ants closely they are seen to
move, not altogether in one straightforward direction, but in
variously spreading contiguous columns, now separating a little
from the general mass, now re-uniting with it.
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