HARDWICKE'S SCIEN C E-GO SSIP. 



vioiis to any sounds, however loud, which I have 

 made for experiment close to the nest. 



At one time my ants collected all the rubbish 

 which they generally threw into the water, as well 

 as a considerable quantity of eartli, and piled it to- 

 gether just at the very edge of the platform over- 

 hanging the water. They kept steadily adding to 

 it, until it hung halfway across the moat, being 

 kept together by the moisture sucked up from 

 the water below. It really seemed as if they 

 planned bridging over the moat itself; but if such 

 was the case, their design was frustrated by the 

 bridge giving way before it reached the other side. 

 I once cleared it all away, but they forthwith set to 

 work to construct it again as before. 



I may mention here, that I should advise the 

 platform being made quite three inches in width 

 from the glass sides to the edge of the bank. When 

 anything unusual occurs to excite the ants they 

 come crowding out, and in their eagerness often 

 slip on the glass and fall down into the trough. 

 They were not often drowned, but were apt to 

 crawl out on the wrong side, and so escape. A 

 wide platform would generally obviate this con- 

 stant inconvenience. During last summer, I 

 saw an extraordinary contest between a large 

 Daddy-longlegs {Tipula) and my ants. The Tipula 

 incautiously alighted upon the nest, and was imme- 

 diately seized by two or three of his legs by several 

 ants. This was the most exciting of the many 

 battles that I have witnessed in my formicary. 

 The Tipula whirled round and round, striking with 

 its legs in its efforts to free itself from its assailants. 

 They pertinaciously grappled afresh as fast as he 

 shook tliem off, until at last he got free from them 

 all, with the exception of one, who still maintained 

 its hold. The Tipula then Hew away from the for- 

 micary ; up and down, against the windows and ceil- 

 ing, and tumbling over and over, but without any 

 effect. The ant kept its hold, and after looking 

 for a long time, I left them to their fate. 



Sometimes my ants sucked greedily at a piece of 

 cooked beef, which formerly they used scarcely to 

 touch, and then I noticed that when they have a 

 large and tempting morsel, they continued eating all 

 night without cessation, contrary to their ordinary 

 habits. 



Gould mentions that he has fixed threads to a 

 flowerpot in which some ants were confined, reach- 

 ing to the ground, which they used as means of 

 escape. I have often tried the same thing with 

 my colony, but they took no notice of it. 



A large number of young ones were born into 

 the colony in 1S72. The eggs from which they 

 sprung must have either been laid before 

 the males and females swarmed, or else a female 

 must have been left behind. In either case 

 fecundation must have been effected in the nest. 

 It is usually stated that the males and females 



pair in the air at the time of swarming, and 

 that a female returns, or is dragged back to the 

 nest, by the neuters to lay her eggs. My own ob- 

 servations have never borne out this statement, 

 and in this case I know for certain that no female 

 could have returned to the nest after the swarming. 

 With regard to the nests which I have had under 

 my notice, my idea has always been that, the two 

 sexes having fecundated and the eggs being laid, 

 these males and females, there being no further 

 use for them, then leave the nest or are even ejected 

 from it Ijy the neuters. It is very noticeable how 

 carefully the neuters keep the males and females 

 from straying away for a certain period, and when 

 that season has expired relax all their vigilance, 

 and even seem by their eager excitement to en- 

 courage and accelerate their departure. During 

 the year I am speaking of (1872) I never saw a 

 single female, and only one small and young male, 

 and I never saw a trace of any swarming at ail. 

 The formicary.being situated in a constantly used 

 room, such an event could have hardly taken place 

 unobserved by anybody. This year my formicary 

 has come to an cud ; I find that it docs not do to 

 keep one individual colony too long in confinement. 

 They lose energy from always having their food 

 found for them and ready at hand, and get listless 

 from the absence of need for the constant foraging, 

 which forms so considerable a part of the labours of 

 an ordinary out-door nest. Besides this, whentwo or 

 three generations have been bred up in confinement* 

 they naturally inherit the kind of artificial habits 

 adapted to that peculiar mode of life. My ants 

 ceased to repair damages, ceased from keeping their 

 nest clean and neat, and finally in August I resolved 

 to take it carefully to pieces and see what had been 

 done in the interior of the nest. On doing so I 

 found a comparatively inconsiderable number of 

 neuters, and not a single male or female. The 

 nest was not nearly so universally excavated as I 

 had expected, and there were considerable masses 

 of it with no burrows at all. The principal pas- 

 sages widened every now and then into small 

 caverns, in which the ants were congregated. Ptight 

 down in the bottom of the nest, in the very centre 

 of the mound of earth, close to the wooden platform 

 at the bottom, I found a large, low, and irregularly- 

 shaped cavity, filled with many ants and also con- 

 siderable stores of eggs, larvoe, and pupse. The 

 eggs were little tiny white globules, semi-trans- 

 parent under the microscope, full of granules 

 sliglitly kidney-shaped, and collected together in 

 small compact masses. The larva; were small 

 white annulatcd maggots, studded with long and 

 stiff bristles and with large and prominent jaws. 

 The pupss looked like small white, and soft, per- 

 feetly motionless ants with larger heads than 

 ordinary, and with very prominent eyes. The 

 larvse spin no cocoon. The eggs, larvte, and pupaj 



