There was no dead ant either in the nest or the outer box. Lastly, on October 15, I put in four more at 7 A.M., and watched them all day at short intervals. They exhibited no sign of fear, and were never attacked. In fact, they made themselves quite at home, and were evidently, like the preceding, recognised as friends. For the sake of comparison at noon I again put in a stranger. Her behaviour was in marked contrast. The preceding ants seemed quite at home, walked about peaceably among the other ants, and made no attempt to leave the nest. The stranger, on the contrary, ran uneasily about, started away from any ant she met, and made every effort to get out of the nest. After she had three times escaped from the nest, I put her back with her own friends. Thus, then, when a nest of Formica fusca was divided early in spring, and when there were no young, the ants produced in each half were in twenty-eight cases all received as friends. In no case was there the slightest trace of enmity. These observations seem to me conclusive as far as they go, and they are very surprising. In the previous experiments, though the results were similar, still the ants experimented with had been brought up in the nest, and were only removed after they had become pupa. It might therefore be argued that the ants having nursed them as larvæ, recognized them when they came to maturity; and though this would cer tainly be in the highest degree improbable, it could not be said to be impossible. In the present case, however, the old ants had absolutely never seen the young ones until the moment when, some days after arriving at maturity, they were introduced into the nest; and yet in twenty-one cases they were undoubtedly recognised as belonging to the community. It seems to me, therefore, to be established by these experiments that the recognition of ants is not personal or individual; that their harmony is not due to the fact that each ant is individually acquainted with every other member of the community. At the same time, the fact that they recognise their friends even when intoxicated, and that they know the young born in their own nest even when they have been brought out of the chrysalis by strangers, seems to indicate that the recognition is not effected by means of any sign or password 1 CHAPTER VII. POWER OF COMMUNICATION. THE Social Hymenoptera, according to Messrs. Kirby and Spence, have the means of communicating to each other information of various occurrences, and use a kind of language which is mutually understood, and is not confined merely to giving intelligence of the approach or absence of danger; it is also co-extensive with all their other occasions for communicating their ideas to each other.' Huber assures us as regards Ants 2 that he has 'frequently seen the antennæ used on the field of battle to intimate approaching danger, and to ascertain their own party when mingled with the enemy; they are also employed in the interior of the ant-hill to apprise their companions of the presence of the sun, so favourable to the development of the larvæ, in their excursions and emigrating to indicate their route, in their recruitings to determine the time of departure,' &c. Elsewhere also he says 3that should an Ant fall in with any of her associates from the nest they put her in the right way by the contact of their antennæ.’ Introduction to Entomology, ii. p. 50. 2 Loc. cit. p. 206 These statements are most interesting; and it is much to be regretted that he has not given us in detail the evidence on which they rest. In another passage, indeed, he himself says,' If they have a language, I cannot give too many proofs of it.' Unfortunately, however, the chapter which he devotes to this important subject is very short, and occupied with general statements rather than with the accounts of the particular experiments and observations on which those statements rest. Nor is there any serious attempt to ascertain the nature, character, and capabilities of this antennal language. Even if by motions of these organs Ants and Bees can caress, can express love, fear, anger, &c., it does not follow that they can narrate facts or describe localities. 6 The facts recorded by Kirby and Spence are not more explicit. It is therefore disappointing to read in the chapter especially devoted to this subject, that, as regards the power possessed by Ants and Bees to communicate and receive information, it is only necessary to refer you to the endless facts in proof, furnished by almost every page of my letters on the history of Ants and of the Hive Bee. I shall therefore but detain you for a moment with an additional anecdote or two, especially with one respecting the former tribe, which is valuable from the celebrity of the narrator.' The first of these anecdotes refers to a Beetle Ateuchus pilularius) which, having made for the Loc sit. p 206. reception of its eggs a pellet of dung too heavy for it to move, ‘repaired to an adjoining heap and soon returned with three of his companions. All four now applied their united strength to the pellet, and at length succeeded in pushing it out, which being done, the three assistant Beetles left the spot and returned to their own quarters.' This observation rests on the authority of an anonymous German artist; and though we are assured that he was a 'man of strict veracity,' I am not aware that any similar fact has been recorded by any other observer. I am by no means satisfied that his explanation of what took place is correct. M. Fabre,' in his interesting observations, places the facts in a very different light. The second case is related by Kalm, on the authority of Dr. Franklin, but again does not seem to me to justify the conclusions drawn from it by Messrs. Kirby and Spence. Dr. Franklin having found a number of ants in a jar of treacle, shook them out and suspended the jar by a string from the ceiling. By chance one ant remained, which, after eating its fill, with some diffi culty found its way up the string, and, thence reaching the ceiling, escaped by the wall to its nest. In less than half an hour a great company of ants sallied out of their hole, climbing the ceiling, crept along the string into the pot and began to eat again; this they continued until the treacle was all consumed, one swarm running up the string while another passed 1 Souvenirs Entomologiques. |