ANTS WARS. 71 



follow it by smell. On the other hand, such mistakes scarcely 

 ever happen to individuals in an unladen train, kept in good 

 array. Other species of ants (F.fiisca, rufa, sanguinea) know 

 better how to manage under such circumstances than do the 

 Amazons. The laden ones lay down their loads, first find where 

 they are, and only take them up again after they have found 

 their way. If the booty seized in the nest first attacked is too 

 large to be all taken at once, the robbers return once, or oftener, 



so as to complete their work The ants, as already said, 



have no regular leaders nor chiefs, yet it is certain that in each 

 expedition, alteration of road, or other change, the decision 

 during that event comes from a small knot of individuals, which 

 have previously come to an understanding, and carry the rest 

 and the undecided along with them. These do not always 

 follow immediately, but only after they have received several 

 taps on the head from the members of the ' ring.' The pro- 

 cession does not advance until the leaders have convinced them- 

 selves by their own eyesight that the main part of the army is 

 following. 



One day Forel saw some Amazons on the surface of a nest 

 of the F. fusca seeking and sounding in all directions, without 

 being able to find the entrance. At last one of them found a 

 very little hole, hardly as large as a pin's head, through which 

 the robbers penetrated. But since, owing to the smallness of 

 the hole, the invasion went on slowly, the search was continued, 

 and an entrance was found further off, through which the 

 Amazon army gradually disappeared. All was quiet. About 

 five minutes later Forel saw a booty-laden column emerge from 

 each hole. Not a single ant was without a load. The two 

 columns united outside and retreated together. 



A marauding excursion of the Amazons against the F. 

 rufibarbis, a sub-species of the F. fusca, or small black ants, 

 took place as follows : The vanguard of the robber army found 

 that it had reached the neighbourhood of the hostile nest more 

 quickly than it had expected ; for it halted suddenly and de- 

 cidedly, and sent a number of messengers which brought up the 

 main body and the rearguard with incredible speed. In less 

 than thirty seconds the whole army had closed up, and hurled 

 itself in a mass on the dome of the hostile nest. This was the 

 more necessary as the rufibarbes during the short halt had dis- 

 covered the approach of the enemy, and had utilised the time to 

 cover the dome with defenders. An indescribable struggle 

 followed, but the superior numbers of the Amazons overcame, 

 and they penetrated into the nest, while the defenders poured 



