36 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



[Jan., 



ON CERTAIN VESICLES FOUND IN THE INTEGUMENT OF ANTS. 



BY ADELE M. FIELDE. 



During the years 1900 to 1907, I demonstrated by ex^periments, 

 duly set forth in print, that the antennae of the ant are a pair of 

 compound noses, certain segments having eadh a special function. 

 The ants in my formicaries were subject to observation by day and 

 by night, all the year round. The experiments were unhurried, 

 very numerous, and with adequate material for every series. No 

 ant that had not manifestly recovered normal health after the 



required surgical operation was 

 engaged in the service demanded 

 by an experiment. (See b, page 

 425, and j, page 215.)^ 



I found that the habitual activi- 

 ties of the ants are guided mainly 

 by diverse odors, produced by the 

 ants themselves, and discerned 

 through the sub-noses of the olfac- 

 tory organs, the funicles of the 

 antennae. 



These odors are: (1) the odor of 

 the domicile, the nest aura, made 

 up of the commingled odors of the 

 inhabitants, and discerned through 

 the air by the distal segment of the 

 antenna. The normal ant, warned 

 by an alien aura, fears and avoids 

 the habitation of any ant com- 

 munity other than her own, and 

 she strives to flee or hide when 

 forcibly introduced into the alarm- 

 ing atmosphere of an unknown 

 nest. But if the twelfth, the distal segment, is eliminated, the ant 

 no longer distinguishes the domiciliary odor and stays fearlessly in 



See bibliography at conclusion of paper. 



