ANT COMMUNITIES 



may be seen everywhere afield. A fallen and bruised 

 apple or peach or a dropped bit of sweet will at once 

 demonstrate the presence of these universal foraging 

 scavengers and robbers. Herein nature has planted in 

 the individual ant the predatory habit upon which to 

 build up such an expedition in column as the raids of 

 Sanguinea-rubicunda disclose. This is the first stage; 

 we proceed to the next. 



The wars of ants, as has been shown, usually arise 

 from the quarrels of a few often, perhaps, stragglers- 

 over some treasure-trove. One after another joins the 

 fray; messengers fly to the respective nests; and soon 

 numbers of recruits, all throbbing with martial fervor, 

 are thronging from either communal centre to the battle- 

 field. This tendency to inarch in file and to mass for 

 defence and attack, and, indeed, for other matters of 

 common interest, is ingrained with most species, and 

 seems to strengthen as the colonies grow. 



With the honey-ants of the Garden of the Gods, as 

 the author has shown, such an assemblage occurs before 

 the evening excursion after honey-dew. [Met 1 , o, p. 24.] 

 Toward sunset the workers begin to gather around the 

 single crater-like gate of the home mound. Soon the 

 summit is covered with the yellow adventurers. At last 

 the break is made, and away they go, keeping ^vell to- 

 gether until the column breaks into sections and inte- 

 gers at the foraging-grounds, a thick clump of scrub-oak 

 bushes. Quite the same phenomenon attends the even- 

 ing outbreak of the cutting ants of Texas. [McC. 6, 

 p. 243; 10, p. 34.] When the chippage used to barricade 

 the gates has been removed by the smaller workers, the 

 leaf -cutters push their way out, and pour forth in 

 squadrons, a great army, and as such march to the chosen 



274 



