ANTS -SLAVE-MAKING. 65 



When the pupae hatch out in the nest of their captors, 

 the young slaves begin their life of work, and seem to 

 regard their master's home as their own ; for they never 

 attempt to escape, and they fight no less keenly than their 

 masters in defence of the nest. F. sanguined content 

 themselves with fewer slaves than do F. rufescens ; and 

 the work that devolves upon the slaves differs according 

 to the species which has enslaved them. In the nests of 

 F. sanguined the comparatively few captives are kept as 

 household slaves ; they never either enter or leave the 

 nest, and so are never seen unless the nest is opened. 

 They are then very conspicuous from the contrast which 

 their black colour and small size present to the red colour 

 and much larger size of F. rufescens. As the slaves are 

 by this species kept strictly indoors, all the outdoor work 

 of foraging, slave-capturing, &c., is performed by the 

 masters ; and when for any reason a nest has to migrate, 

 the masters carry their slaves in their jaws. F. rufescens, 

 on the other hand, assigns a much larger share of labour 

 to the slaves, which, as we have already seen, are present 

 in much larger numbers to take it. In this species the 

 males and fertile females do no work of any kind ; and 

 the workers, or sterile females, though most energetic in 

 capturing slaves, do no other kind of work. Therefore 

 the whole community is absolutely dependent upon its 

 slaves. The masters are not able to make their own nests 

 or to feed their own larvae. When they migrate, it is the 

 slaves that determine the migration, and, reversing the 

 order of things that obtains in F. sanguinea, carry their 

 masters in their jaws. Huber shut up thirty masters 

 without a slave and with abundance of their favourite 

 food, and also with their own larvae and pupae as a stimulus 

 to work ; but they could not feed even themselves, and 

 many died of hunger. He then introduced a single slave, 

 and she at once set to work, fed the surviving masters, 

 attended to the larvae, and made some cells. 



In order to confirm this observation, Lespes placed a 

 piece of sugar near a nest of slave-makers. It was soon 

 found by one of the slaves, which gorged itself and re- 

 turned to the nest. Other slaves then came out and did 



