CHAPTER XXVI. 



THE AMAZONS, OR OBLIGATORY SLAVE-MAKERS. 



" L'histoire des fourmis amazones et de leurs auxiliaires, nous prouve encore, 

 que si 1'education petit effacer la haine qui existe entre des especes differentes, 

 et par consequent ennemies, elle ne sauroit changer leur instinct et leur caractere, 

 puisque les amazones et leurs esclaves, elevees avec les memes soins et par les 

 memes -nourrices, vivent dans la fourmiliere mixte sous des lois entierement 

 opposees." P. Huber, "' Recherches stir les Moeurs des Fourmis Indigenes," 

 1810. 



The observations recorded in the last chapter show that the Euro- 

 pean and American sanguinary ants represent two different stages in 

 the development of slavery, and suggest the question as to which is the 

 more advanced or specialized. The greater variation and usually 

 smaller size of the New World forms indicate a more primitive or 

 inchoate condition, but, on the other hand, the greater number of slaves 

 and more frequent expeditions, except in F. ascri'a, indicate a higher 

 and more specialized development of the dulotic instincts. A very 

 similar problem confronts us in the obligatory slave-makers of the 

 genus Polyergus, the amazons, whose distribution parallels in an 

 interesting manner that of F. sanguined. Polyergus, too, is circum- 

 polar, with only a single representative in Europe, the typical P. 

 rufcscens, whereas North America has at least four subspecies and a 

 few undescribed varieties. The subspecies are: P. brci'iccps, ranging 

 from the Rocky Mountains eastward to Illinois and Kansas ; ine.vi- 

 canns in Mexico; bicolor, known only from Wisconsin and Illinois, 

 and litcidns, ranging from the Atlantic seaboard, north of the Caro- 

 linas, to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The genus is 

 therefore represented by the greatest number of different forms in 

 the Middle West. 



i. The European Amazons. P. rufcscens was the first slave-making 

 ant to be described by P. Huber (1810). His splendid observations 

 were confirmed and extended by Forel in 18/4 and little of importance 

 has since been added. Unlike sanguined, rufcscens is, on the whole, a 

 rare ant, especially in northern Europe. In Switzerland, however, 

 along the shores of Lake Leman, where Huber and Forel carried on 

 their investigations, one may be sure of finding a number of its colonies 

 without difficulty. It is one of the most beautiful of ants, the worker 

 and female being of a rich brownish-red color, slightly tinged with 



