228 A. M. FIELD E. 



remain quiescent in their Fielde nest l for some minutes after 

 the roof-pane had been lifted. 



Upon the ants of the other section I practiced such atrocities 

 as that of lifting them frequently by the leg with a pair of forceps 

 or plunging them for an instant in cold water. The ants of this 

 section quickly acquired such associations with the lifting of their 

 roof-pane, that they fled through the compartments of their house 

 in wild panic whenever I touched the glass. 



PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS. 



Is is the purpose of this paper to show that ants have power 

 to recognize certain ant-odors after months or years of separation 

 from those identical odors, and in order that the evidence presented 

 may be plain, it appears necessary to first restate certain facts, 

 well established by past experiments. 



1. Ants of different species in different communities or colo- 

 nies, and also ants of the same species and variety in different 

 communities or colonies, ordinarily show aversion to each other 

 on meeting, and are especially truculent in defense of their young. 

 The cause of this general and perpetual feud among ants of dif- 

 ferent colonies, is due to difference of odor, discerned through 

 their antennae, their organs of smell. Fear and hostility are 

 excited in the ant by any ant-odor which she has not individually 

 encountered and found to be compatible with her comfort. 



2. If ants of different species, or even of different genera or 

 subfamilies, are made pleasantly acquainted with each other 

 within a few hours after hatching, they will thereafter continue to 

 live together in arnity, constituting a mixed colony. 2 The ac- 

 quaintance thus formed is individual, and every ant, in her later 

 behavior, will act in accordance with individual experience. Ac- 

 quaintance with the odor of one species or colony does not secure 

 from the experienced ant an amicable reception of a representa- 

 tive of any other species or colony. 



Among the mixed colonies, formed by me in August, 1903, 

 twenty Stenamma fnlvuui workers lived with a Cremastog aster 

 lineolata queen a full year, and the harmony of the nest was as 



1 Described in BIOLOGICAL BULLETIN, Vol. II., No. 2, 1900, and Vol. VII., No. 

 4, 1904. 



2 "Artificial Mixed Nests of Ants," A. M. Fielde, BIOLOGICAL BULLETIN, Vol. 

 V., No. 6, 1903, p. 320. 



