Oecodoma

Smith, F., 1858, Catalogue of the hymenopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Part VI. Formicidae., London: British Museum : 183-184

3. OECODOMA SEXDENTATA . Pl. X. fig. 19. B.M.

Formica sexdens, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 964. 14 [[worker]].

Fabr. Syst. Ent. 395. 23; Ent. Syst. ii. 363. 23.

De Geer, Ins. iii. 608. pl. 31. t. 14.

Oliv. Encycl. Meth. vi. 500. Formica sexdentata, Latr. Hist. Nat. Fourm. 228. Atta sexdens, Fabr. Syst. Piez. 422. 2.

Hab. Cayenne; Surinam; Para; Rio; South America; St. Vincent's.

This is probably the large form of the worker of Oecodoma abdominalis , that which follows being the smaller form of the same species.

The Rev. Hamlet Clark says of this species: " Twenty years ago it was not known at Rio, except by name, as a pest in the Minas district; during this time it has been gradually advancing across the country, or rather under the country, establishing everywhere colonies; and now, within the last two or three years, it has reached the Organ Mountains, where I found it in two localities. Mr. Heath, the proprietor of Constancia, has used all means to exterminate it, but without the least success; sometimes in a single night it will strip a whole orange or lemon tree of its leaves; a ditch of water round his garden which quite keeps out all other ants, is of no use: this species carries a mine below its bed without any difficulty, - indeed I have been assured again and again by sensible men, that it has undermined, in its progress through the country, the great river Paraiba, as broad as the Thames at London Bridge; at any rate, without anything like a natural or artificial bridge, it appears on the other side, and continues its course. Its food is principally vegetable- leaves of trees and plants. I have seldom, if ever, seen it carry- ing flies, as other ants do, to its burrow - always slices of leaf."