ANTS WARS. 75 



would bring back to the colony a thousand pupae or larvae. 

 On the whole, the number of future slaves stolen by a strong 

 colony during a favourable summer may be reckoned at forty 

 thousand ! 



The internecine battles which occasionally break out 

 among the Amazons themselves are naturally the most cruel. 

 They tear each other to pieces with incredible fury, and knots 

 of five or six individuals which have pierced each other may be 

 seen rolling over each other on the ground, it being impos- 

 sible to distinguish between friend and foe. Civil wars among 

 men are also known to be the most embittered and the most 

 bloody. 



The mode of attack practised by the other best known 

 species of slave-making ant, sanguined, is somewhat 

 different : 



They march in small troops which, in case of need, summon 

 reinforcements, and therefore as a rule only reach their goal 

 slowly. Between the individual troops messengers or scouts 

 run continually backwards and forwards. The first troop 

 which arrives at the hostile nest does not rush at it, as do the 

 Amazons, but contents itself with making provisional re- 

 connaissances, wherein some of the assailants are generally 

 made prisoners by the enemy, which have time to bethink 

 and to collect themselves. Reinforcements are now brought 

 up, and a regular siege of the nest begins. A sudden invasion, 

 like that of the Amazons, is never seen. The besieging army 

 forms a complete ring round the hostile nest, and the besiegers 

 hold this with mandibles open and antennae drawn back, with- 

 out going nearer. In this position they beat off all assaults of 

 the besieged, until they feet themselves strong enough to advance 

 to the attack. This attack scarcely ever fails, and has for its 

 chief object the mastering of the entrances and outlets of the 

 nest. A special troop guards each opening, and only allows 

 such of the besieged to pass out as carry no pupae. This man- 

 oeuvre gives rise to a number of comical and characteristic 

 scenes. By this means the sanguine ants in a few minutes manage 

 to have all the defenders out of the nests and the pupae left 

 behind. This is the case at least with the rujibarbes, while 

 the rather less timid fuscce try, even at the last moment wheu 

 it is useless, to stop up or barricade the entrances. The sanguine 

 ants do not indeed possess the terrible weapons and the warlike 

 impetuosity of the Amazons, but they are stronger and larger. 

 Tf a,fusca or a rufibarbis fights with a sanguine ant for the pos- 



