328 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



Children occasionally get on their pavement, and are badly stung. A few of 

 these pavement lessons, however, generally obviate that inconvenience. The 

 pain of their poison is more lasting, will swell and feel harder, than that of the 

 honey bee. If they insert their stings on the feet or ankles of the child, the 

 irritation will ascend to the glands of the inguinal region, producing tumours 

 of a character quite painful, often exciting considerable fever in the general 

 system ; the irritation will last a day or two, but I have seen no permanent 

 injury arising from it. 



During protracted spells of dry weather, they are frequently found in great 

 numbers in our wells. They seem to have gone there in pursuit of water, and 

 not being able to get back, to make the best of a bad condition in this unfore- 

 seen dilemma they will collect and cling together in masses as large as an 

 ordinary teacup, in which condition they are frequently caught and drawn up 

 in the bucket. When they are thus brought up, though they may have been 

 in the water a day or more, they are all living, though half drowned and barely 

 able to move. While in the well they are all afloat, and at least one-half the 

 mass submerged. As it is known that this species of ant cannot survive 15 

 minutes under water, how they manage when in a large half-sunken mass to 

 survive a day, or even longer, is a question to which I may fail to give a 

 satisfactory solution. I may, however, from experiments I have made 

 with single individuals, in water, venture the assertion that there is no pos- 

 sible chance for the submerged portion of the globular mass, if it remain in 

 r.he same condition in relation to the water, to survive even half an hour. 

 Then we are forced to the supposition that by some means or other the ball 

 must be caused to revolve as it floats. The globular mass must be kept roll- 

 ing, and make a revolution every four mi?iutes, or the submerged portion must 

 die. To accomplish this somewhat astonishing life-preserving process, there 

 is but one possible alternative. It can be effected only by a united and 

 properly directed systematic motion of the disengaged limbs of the outer tier 

 of ants, occupying the submerged half of the globular mass. 



I saw to-day (June 15), in a clean-trodden path near my dwelling, quite a 

 number of this species of ant engaged in deadly conflict. They Mere strewed 

 along the path to the distance of 10 or 12 feet, fighting, most of them, in sin- 

 gle combat. In some few cases, I noticed there would be two to one engaged, 

 in all of which cases the struggle was soon ended. Their mode of warfare is 

 decapitation, and in all cases where there were two to one engaged the work 

 of cutting off the head was soon accomplished. There were already a num- 

 ber of heads and headless ants laying around, and there was a greater number 

 of single pairs of the insatiate warriors grappling each other by the throat on 

 the battle-field, some of whom seemed to be already dead, still clinging to- 

 gether by their throats. Among the single pairs in the deadly strife there 

 were no cases of decapitation. They mutually grapple each other by the throat, 

 and there cling until death ends the conflict, but does not separate them. I do 

 not think that in single combat they possess the power to dissever the head ; but 

 they can grip the neck so firmly as to stop circulation, and hold on until death 

 ensues without their unlocking the jaws even then. 



The cause of this war was attributable to the settlement of a young queen 

 in close proximity (not more than 20 feet) of a very populous community that 

 had occupied that scope of territory for ten or twelve years. Ar first, and so 

 long as they operated under concealment, the old community did not molest 

 them ; but when they threw off their mask, and commenced paving their city, 

 the older occupants of that district of territory declared war against them and 

 waged it to extermination. The war was declared by the old settlers, and the 

 object was to drive out the new ones or exterminate them. But the warriors 

 of this species of ant are not to be driven. Where they select a location for a 

 home, nothing but annihilation can get them away. So, in the present case, 

 the war continued two days and nights, and resulted in the total extermina- 

 tion of the intruding colony. From the vastly superior numbers of the older 



[Nov. 



