CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE TEMPORARY SOCIAL PARASITES. 



" Est-on bien sur que les mceurs parasitaires soient derivees de 1'amour de 

 1'inaction? Le parasite est-il devenu ce qu'il est parce qu'il a trouve excellent 

 de ne rien faire? Le repos est-il pour lui avantage si grand que, pour 1'obtenir, 

 il ait renie ses antiques usages? Eh bien, depuis que je frequente 1'hymenoptere 

 dotant sa 'famille de 1'avoir des autres, je n'ai encore rien vu qui, chez lui, denotat 

 le faineant. Le parasite, tout au contraire, mene vie penible, plus rude que celle 

 des travailleurs. Suivons-le sur un talus calcine par le soleil. Comme il est 

 affaire, soucieux ; comme il arpente d'un pas brusque la nappe ensoleillee ; comme 

 il se depense en recherches ihterminables, en visites le plus souvent infructueuses ! 

 Avant d'avoir fait rencontre d'un nid qui lui convienne, il a plonge cent fois 

 dans des cavites sans valeur, dans des galeries non encore approvisionnees. Et 

 puis, si benevole que soit 1'hote, le parasite n'est pas toujours des mieux regus 

 dans I'hotellerie. Non, tout n'est pas roses dans son metier." Fabre, " Souvenirs 

 Entomologiques,'' III, 1890. 



Mixed colonies of ants were first discovered by P. Huber nearly 

 a century ago (1810) and have since been studied in Europe by Darwin, 

 Forel, Lubbock, Adlerz, Wasmann, Janet, Reichenbach, Escherich, 

 Viehmeyer and many others ; in America by McCook, Mrs. Treat, Forel 

 and myself. These colonies present a great number of singular prob- 

 lems, on many of which light has been shed only within the past decade. 

 In the study of this, as in that of so many other subjects, the startling 

 and complex phenomena were the first to be seen and to call for an 

 explanation. Various inadequate explanations were then advanced, 

 till, in seeking support for these, the investigator happened on some 

 obscure and hitherto disregarded or misinterpreted phenomenon which 

 suddenly changed the aspect of the whole subject. Thus the highly 

 specialized slave-making behavior of Polycrgus and Formica sanguined 

 was the first to be observed by Huber and this was so extraordinary 

 that it engrossed the attention of observers for nearly a century. As 

 the slave-making forays are executed by worker ants, it was natural 

 to seek for their origin and signification in the activities of this caste. 

 In the meantime some apparently unimportant observations on the 

 mixed colonies were being accumulated and the remarkable initiative 

 of the queen ant in establishing her formicary began to be understood 

 and appreciated. After vainly seeking the raison d'etre of the mixed 

 colonies in the behavior of the workers, an attempt was made to solve 

 the problem by a study of the queen. This attempt proved to be 

 successful that we are now wondering how it could have taken so many 



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