TENACITY OF LIFE IN ANTS. 303 



bit of sponge saturated with distilled water. Care was taken to 

 ensure good ventilation and all other conditions were made 

 hygienic, that there might be no cause of death other than that of 

 deprivation of food. The starving ants did not manifestly weaken 

 after long abstinence but collapsed suddenly and finally, giving 

 no premonitory evidences of exhaustion. 



Of thirty Crcuiastogaster lincolata, segregated on July 2, 1904, 

 ten lived so long as ten days and only one lived so long as eigh- 

 teen days without food. 



Of thirteen Camponotus Jicrculcamts pictus workers, two lived 

 seven days ; two, fourteen days ; one, eighteen days; one, twenty- 

 three days ; two, twenty-four days ; one, twenty-six days ; and 

 one, twenty-nine days. On the tenth day of fasting, I found three 

 of these ants killed and dismembered, with an appearance of 

 having been chewed. In all the cells, this was the only group 

 where the ants attacked their companions in tribulation. As ants 

 sometimes quarrel with their mates when food is plentiful, this 

 affray cannot be fairly attributed to a cannibalistic tendency in this 

 species. 



Of nine Stcnamma fulvuin workers, two lived eighteen days ; 

 one, twenty-seven days ; one, twenty-nine days ; one, thirty-two 

 days ; two, thirty-six days ; one, thirty-eight days ; and one, forty- 

 six days. The last to die measured seven millimeters. 



Of eight Camponotus pennsylvanicus workers, one lived fourteen 

 days ; two, eighteen days; one, twenty-one days ; one, twenty-two 

 days ; one, thirty-nine days ; one, forty-five days, and one, forty- 

 seven days. The last two mentioned were fourteen millimeters 

 long, and were larger than any of those that died earlier. 



Of five Formica lasiodcs workers, one lived ten days ; two, eigh- 

 teen days ; one, thirty-nine days. An isolated queen of this 

 species, lived from July 2 to August 3 I, just sixty days. During 

 her isolation, she deposited seven eggs, the seventh being laid on 

 the twenty-first day of her fasting. Any egg discovered in the 

 cell was at once removed. 



Of nine Formica fnsca snbscricca workers, picked up from a 

 roadside and segregated without feeding on July 3, one lived ten 

 days ; one, seventy-one days ; and the other seven were all alive 

 on October 18. Possibly the remarkable capability of these ants 



