ANT COMMUNITIES 



organs, otherwise complete, arc operated as acid batteries 

 from which shoot out poison streams. These enter the 

 system of antagonists by the joints of limbs or other 

 unarmored parts, and produce paralysis and death. 

 Camponotus will eject this formic acid in such quan- 

 tities as to be visible to the naked eye. When large 

 numbers of the Alleghany Mountain mound-makers are 

 irritated and given some object to attack, the fumes of 

 the strong acid emissions are soon perceived. Lord 

 Avebury found, after disturbing the nest of a species of 

 Formica in Switzerland, that a hand held as much as 

 ten inches above the ants was covered with acid. Their 

 mode of punishing a human victim is to scrape away the 

 outer skin with their mandibles and eject their poison 

 upon the abrasion, which causes a painful smart. In 

 combat thev drench their adversaries from these 



, 



formidable acid batteries. Thus ants are effectively 

 equipped for both defensive and aggressive war. 



