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The armies of E. vastator and E. erratica move, as far as I could learn, wholly under covered roads the ants constructing them gradually but rapidly as they advance. The column of foragers pushes forward step by step under the protection of these covered passages, through the thickets, and upon reaching a rotting log, or other promising hunting- ground, pour into the crevices in search of booty.
Two other species Eciton vastator, and Eciton erratica both of which are blind, move entirely under covered ways in search of promising hunting-grounds. Their arcades are sometimes two hundred yards in length, the grains of earth being taken from the soil over which the column is passing, and fitted together without cement.
Indeed the insect, it would appear, was a natural parasite of the potato, and some observers have gone so far as to assert that the Aphis Vastator abounded more on healthy plants than upon those affected with the blight. Letter to the Duke of Leinster quoted in Irish Census for 1851.
The potato crop, for the most part, continued to look well up to the end of July, but the blight had appeared, in the most decided way, during the first half of that month, although not then very apparent to a casual observer. Mr. Mayne, like many persons at the time, attributed the blight to an insect which some called Aphis Vastator, others Thrips minutissima.
Next in order comes the Eciton vastator, which has no eyes, although the collapsed sockets are plainly visible; and, lastly, the Eciton erratica, in which both sockets and eyes have disappeared, leaving only a faint ring to mark the place where they are usually situated.
Cooper cast the blame upon the fogs; whilst Professors Lindley, Playfair, and Kane were busy with their tests, and retorts, and alembics; and whilst others again microscope in hand were in active pursuit of the Aphis vastator, or Thrips minutissima, a not inconsiderable class of persons, departing widely from all such speculations, discovered, beyond all doubt, that Popery was the true cause of the potato blight.
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