THE SAXGUIXARY AXTS. 4 6 3 



legged fuscata, however, all managed to escape unscathed and with a 

 few of their young. The wildest excitement prevailed till all the fuscata 

 were out of the nest, but not one of them remained on the premises ten 

 minutes after the first winged female had emerged from the opening. 

 The rubicunda then proceeded to pillage the nest at their leisure, bring- 

 ing out the deserted larvae and pupae and making for home. I followed 

 them as they hurried off over a very tortuous path under the hazel 

 bushes to their formicary, which was covered by a pile of twigs and 

 dead leaves, some 40 meters from the nest they had pillaged. Loitering 

 about the rubicunda nest were a number of slaves, large snbsericca and 

 an occasional small fuscata. These seemed to show great interest in 

 the larvae and pupae with which the rubicnnda were constantly arriving. 

 I returned to the fuscata nest. It was now 5.25 P. M. and the last 

 straggling rubicunda were just starting home with the last of the pupae. 

 In the meantime the fuscata had established themselves under a bunch 

 of dead leaves around the roots of a hazel bush about two meters from 

 their old quarters. They had transported thither the rescued larvae 

 and pupae and were very busy carrying in the workers and females that 

 had strayed about in the grass. This was done with marvellous dis- 

 patch and precision. The whole raid had been accomplished in an hour 

 and a half, without the death or injury of a single ant, showing that 

 the rubicunda, like her European congener, accomplishes her purpose 

 by surprising and terrorizing rather than by killing the colonies on 

 which she preys. The unharmed fuscata could at once set to work to 

 raise another large brood to be pillaged in turn at a later date, and this 

 is as it should be from the rubicunda point of view. 



F. fuscata, like the other members of the pallide-fulva- group, is 

 even more cowardly than snbsericca, so that the raid above described 

 is not typical in all respects. Large subsericca or neoclara colonies 

 offer a much more hostile resistance to the invading slave-makers, and 

 the battle may continue for hours or even days before the latter succeed 

 in pillaging the nest. At such times the sanguined will not hesitate to 

 use her mandibles and the ground may be strewn with the corpses of 

 both species. Colonies that have been attacked and plundered 

 repeatedly season after season seem to submit to the affliction more 

 passively than those attacked for the first time. Owing to the great 

 differences in the size and condition of the colonies of both the slaves 

 and the slave-makers, the forays of the latter present an enormous 

 range of variability, and it would be desirable to record many more 

 observations on them, both in Europe and North America. 



Like the typical sanguined, our American forms may also pillage 

 the nests of ants belonging to strange genera. I once witnessed a 



