TENACITY OF LIFE IN ANTS. 305 



Such preclusion of innutrient matter from the alimentary 

 canal must greatly conserve the physical energy of the ants in 

 the processes of digestion. 



AVOIDANCE OF POISONS. 



Ants that had fasted ten days did not partake of sweets in 

 which poisons were incorporated, although their equally hungry 

 mates ate the unpoisoned sweets with avidity. 



When the ants were compelled to walk over a mixture of one 

 gram of corrosive sublimate with two cubic centimeters of 

 molasses, they afterward cleaned their feet with tongue and 

 mandibles, and then evinced much distress in cleaning their 

 mouths, but nearly all of them survived the experience. 



When one gram of potassium cyanide was dissolved in five 

 cubic centimeters of molasses, and the ants compelled to walk 

 upon the solution, they appeared to die within a few seconds 

 after touching the feet with the tongue, but they all revived some 

 minutes or hours later and continued their normal activities. 



When one gram of carbolic acid crystals was dissolved in two 

 cubic centimeters of molasses, the ants compelled to walk upon 

 the solution cleaned their feet with their tongues and mandibles, 

 evinced much distress, and died after some hours or days, with 

 no subsequent resuscitation. 



In the experiments with poisons, the ants employed were 

 Cremastogoster lincolata, Stcnannna fuliniin, Lasius latipcs, For- 

 mica snbsericea, Campoiwtns pcniisylvanicus and Camponotus cas- 

 tancus ainericamis. In these experiments the largest ants were 

 latest in succumbing to the effects of the administered poisons. 

 Cainponotits mncricanns, about thirteen millimeters in length, 

 lived several days after the administration of the carbolic acid, 

 and in a natural environment might possibly have remedied their 



ills. 



REGURGITATION OF FOOD. 



Whether the regurgitation of food be a simple reflex or an 

 altruistic act, it was practiced by some of the ants when there 

 was little to confer upon a starving comrade. One Ccunpotiotits 

 pcnnsylvanicus worker was seen to make unsuccessful effort to 

 regurgitate food to another on the thirty-first, and also on the 

 thirty-sixth day of fasting. 



