much from one another. F. fusca (Pl. I. fig. 3), the one which is pre-eminently the slave' ant, is, as might be expected, extremely timid; while the nearly allied F. cinerea has, on the contrary, a considerable amount of individual audacity. F.rufa (Pl. II. fig. 5), the horse ant, is, according to M. Forel, especially characterised by the want of individual initiative, and always moves in troops; he also regards the genus Formica as the most brilliant; though others. excel it in other respects, as, for instance, in the sharpness of their senses. F. pratensis worries its slain enemies; F. sanguinea (Pl. I. fig. 6) never does so. The slave-making ant (P. rufescens, Pl. I. fig. 5) is, perhaps, the bravest of all. If a single individual finds herself surrounded by enemies, she never attempts to fly, as any other ant would, but transfixes her opponents one after another, springing right and left with great agility, till at length she succumbs, overpowered by numbers. M. scabrinodis is cowardly and thievish; during wars among the larger species they haunt the battle-fields and devour the dead. Tetramorium is said to be very greedy; Myrmecina very phlegmatic.

In industry ants are not surpassed even by bees and wasps. They work all day, and in warm weather, if need be, even at night too. I once watched an ant from six in the morning, and she worked without intermission till a quarter to ten at night. I had put her to a saucer containing larvæ, and in this time she

carried off no less than a hundred and eighty-seven to the nest. I had another ant, which I employed in my experiments, under continuous observation several days. When I started for London in the morning, and again when I went to bed at night, I used to put her in a small bottle, but the moment she was let out she began to work again. On one occasion I was away from home for a week. On my return I took her out of the bottle, placing her on a little heap of larvæ about three feet from the nest. Under these circumstances I certainly did not expect her to return. However, though she had thus been six days in confinement, the brave little creature immediately picked up a larva, carried it off to the nest, and after half an hour's rest returned for another.

Our countryman Gould noticed' certain amusements' or 'sportive exercises,' which he had observed Huber also mentions2 scenes which he among ants. had witnessed on the surface of ant hills, and which, he says, ‘I dare not qualify with the title gymnastic, although they bear a close resemblance to scenes of that kind.' The ants raised themselves on their hind legs, caressed one another with their antennæ, engaged in mock combats, and almost seemed to be playing hide and seek. Forel entirely confirms Huber's statements, though he was at first incredulous.

1 An Account of English Ants, p. 103.

2 Nat. Hist. of Ants, p. 197.

3 Loc. cit., p. 367

He

'Malgré l'exactitude avec laquelle il décrit ce fait, j'avais peine à y croire avant de l'avoir vu moi-même, mais une fourmilière pratensis m'en donna l'exemple à plusieurs reprises lorsque je l'approchai avec précaution. Des (ie. workers) se saisissaient par les pattes ou par les mandibules, se roulaient par terre, puis se retachaient, s'entraînaient les unes les autres dans les trous de leur dôme pour en ressortir aussitôt après, etc. Tout cela sans aucun acharnement, sans venin; il était évident que c'était purement amical. Le moindre souffle de ma part mettait aussitôt fin à ces jeux. J'avoue que ce fait peut paraître imaginaire à qui ne l'a pas vu, quand on pense que l'attrait des sexes ne peut en être cause.'

Bates, also, in the case of Eciton legionis, observed behaviour which looked to him like simple indulgence in idle amusement, the conclusion,' he says, 'that the ants were engaged merely in play was irresistible.'1

Lastly, I may observe that ants are very cleanly animals, and assist one another in this respect. I have often seen them licking one another. Those, moreover, which I painted for facility of recognition were gradually cleaned by their friends.

Loc. cit., vol. ii. p. 362.

30

CHAPTER II.

ON THE FORMATION AND MAINTENANCE OF NESTS, AND ON THE DIVISION OF LABOUR.

It is remarkable that notwithstanding the researches of so many excellent observers, and though ants' nests swarm in every field and every wood, we did not know how their nests commence.

Three principal modes have been suggested. After the marriage-flight the young queen may either

1. Join her own or some other old nest;

2. Associate herself with a certain number of workers, and with their assistance commence a new nest; or

3. Found a new nest by herself.

The question can of course only be settled by observation, and the experiments made to determine it had hitherto been indecisive.

Blanchard, indeed, in his work on the Metamorphoses of Insects' (I quote from Dr. Duncan's translation, p. 205), says :- Huber observed a solitary female go down into a small under-ground hole, take off her own wings, and become, as it were, a worker; then she constructed a small nest, laid a few eggs, and brought

up the larvæ by acting as mother and nurse at the same time.'

This, however, is not a correct version of what Huber says. His words are:-I enclosed several females in a vessel full of light humid earth, with which they constructed lodges, where they resided, some singly, others in common. They laid their eggs and took great care of them; and notwithstanding the inconvenience of not being able to vary the temperature of their habitation, they reared some, which became larvæ of a tolerable size, but which soon perished from the effect of my own negligence.''

It will be observed that it was the eggs, not the larvæ, which, according to Huber, these isolated females reared. It is true that he attributes the early and uniform death of the larvæ to his own negligence, but the fact remains that in none of his observations did an isolated female bring her offspring to maturity.

Other entomologists, especially Forel and Ebrard, have repeated the same observations with similar results; and as yet in no single case had an isolated female been known to bring her young to maturity. Forel even thought himself justified in concluding, from his observations and from those of Ebrard, that such a fact could not occur.

Lepeletier de St. Fargeau 2 was of opinion that ants' nests originate in the second mode indicated above, and

1 Natural History of Ants, Huber, p. 121.

2 Hist. Nat. des Ins. Hymenoptères, vol. i. p. 143.