HOW ANTS COMMUNICATE 



"leaders," who seem to act as scouts in scenting the 

 trail, will diverge from the column, flank the obstruction, 

 and recover the trail. Whereupon the main body move 

 around the tainted section and proceed upon their 

 way. 



In the antennae of ants are concentrated a great degree 

 of diverse sensibilities. The sense of hearing (probably 

 in whole); a large measure of the function of sight as it 

 exists in other insects and higher animals; the faculty 

 of communication (language) all seem to be located in 

 the antenme. They probably surpass in sensibility any- 

 thing at the command of higher animals, or even of man. 

 [C. 1, p. 210.] They are not only the prominent guiding 

 organs, as in insects generally, but are rendered peculiar- 

 ly sensitive by the addition of delicate hairs, some of 

 them highly specialized, spread over their surface. 

 Besides, they are articulated to a degree which gives 

 great flexibility and permits a variety of movements in 

 their use. 



The removal of the antenme produces an extraordinary 

 disturbance in an ant's intelligence. It can no longer 

 find its way or recognize companions. It ceases from 

 its usual tasks, from seeking food, and from caring for 

 the larvae. Its condition recalls descriptions of the 

 consequences of removing the frontal lobes from the 

 brain of higher animals. The analogy is so close as to 

 suggest that the antennae of ants, with a brain adequate 

 for their functional requirements, are equivalent to the 

 most important parts of the brain of higher animals 

 working with inferior sensory organs. Such organs of 

 sensibility as those possessed by ants are a specialty in 

 sensory organism a conspicuous illustration of sensory 



power concentrated in an external organ. "Their loss 



149 



