SANITATION- -PERSONAL BENEVOLENCE 



in removing one rotund, pushing and pulling her along. 

 A sketch was fortunately caught of a worker-major 

 dragging a honey-bearer up the perpendicular face of a 

 cutting made while excavating a nest. The mandibles 

 of the two insects were interlocked, and the worker 

 backed up the steep, successfully drawing her protegee. 

 This interest in these unwieldy rotunds is maintained 

 in the daily life of the formicary. They are regarded as 

 dependents, like the queen, the virgin females, and males, 

 and are fed and tended as such. Here is at least the 

 semblance of beneficence, but it is doubtful if such action 

 passes beyond the control of communal instinct; for, 

 on the other hand, a number of examples fell under 

 notice which caused doubt as to the existence of a per- 

 sonal sentiment toward special cases of need, outside 

 the routine limits of communal service. I observed 

 several of these. 



After the soil was duly prepared in my artificial nests, 

 the ants were introduced and left to work out their 

 own habitations. The honey-bearers were thus mingled 

 upon the surface with the workers, upon whom fell the 

 entire task of home-making. The latter at once began 

 digging galleries and rooms. In bringing up and dis- 

 tributing the pellets, there was much opportunity to 

 show carefulness and tenderness toward the honey- 

 bearers scattered over the surface. No such action was 

 noted, although I was anxious to discover such excel- 

 lences in my little charges. On the contrary, there were 

 exhibitions of what seemed cruel neglect and even posi- 

 tive cruelty. For example, the grains of soil, instead of 

 being dumped on unoccupied spots, were heaped around 

 the rotunds until the poor creatures were literally buried 

 alive. It would have been easy for the carriers to draw 



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