512 ANTS. 



even their dutie> and the defence o'f the nest, in order to partake of 

 honey. >> inordinate is their fondness for this substance." Forel has 

 seen ants that were atlaeked in their nest and in imminent danger of 

 being overpowered 1\ tlieir enemies, nevertheless stop a moment and 

 imbibe a little of the honey which he was holding out to them. The 

 fondno- "f nearlv all ants for sweets, such as the excreta of plant-lice, 

 and their dislike of ill-smelling things, such as carrion and the feces 

 of mammals, is very pronounced. 2 Taste is evidently the sense in 

 which these insects approach most closely the higher animals and man. 

 \Yhether or not ants are able to perceive the stimuli that we call 

 auditory, has been much debated. In Chapter II I have shown that 

 stridulatory organs are well developed in the Ponerinse and Myrmicinae 

 and are present in a rudimental form also in the Dorylinae ; and that 

 the ants possessing these organs actually emit very shrill sounds 

 usually of so high a pitch as to be inaudible to us has been observed 

 more or less clearly by a number of investigators, notably by Swinton 

 (1878, 18/9), Wroughton (1892), Sharp (1893), Janet ( 18936), Emery 

 (18937?), Wasmann (189300, Adlerz (1895) an ^ myself ( 19037) . 

 Forel (1874) and Wasmann (1893/1) have shown that the workers of 

 European Camponoti make sounds also by striking the walls of their 

 nest repeatedly with their gasters, and Gounelle ( 1900) observed that 

 workers of the Brazilian Cainponotits lints, which nests in the twigs 

 and dried leaves of the bamboo, produce, when disturbed, a very 

 audible, metallic and whirring sound like that of a rattlesnake, by 

 repeatedly striking the walls of the nest with their heads. In Chapter 

 IV attention was called to the fact that all ants (even the Camponotinse 

 and Dolichoclerinae !) possess in all their tibiae, and probably also in 

 other parts of their bodies, structures built on the same fundamental 

 plan as the famous chordotonal organs of the stridulating crickets and 

 katydids. This fact renders it extremely probable that ants perceive 

 not only the stridulatory vibrations of their fellows, but also other 

 vibrations. All students of these insects would doubtless agree to this 

 statement. At this point, however, opinions begin to diverge. Huber 

 (1810) and Forel (1874) deny that ants hear sounds, and the latter, 

 while admitting that they respond easily to grosser mechanical shocks, 

 failed to obtain any response to sounds of a very high pitch. Lubbock 

 (1881 ), on the other hand, believed that they react to such sounds, but 

 he failed to obtain any experimental evidence for his view. Parker 

 and Miss Fielde (1904) failed to observe any reactions to "aerial 



2 1 have seen Helton caecum visiting carrion, but this was evidently for the 

 purpose of feeding on the larvae of flies, Silphids, etc. A correspondent informs 

 me that the ants of the Philippines have similar habits and are very important 

 agents in reducing the number of flies at certain seasons of the year. 



