472 2'ransactions. — Zoology. 



this great event in ant-life. If viewed in the sunshine a few 

 days before svvarniing, the throng of busy ants with ghsten- 

 ing wings presents a charming picture of social life among 

 insects. Huber describes the attention bestowed by the 

 neuters of some European ants on young queens during 

 their development. In large colonies of H. striata it is a 

 common occurrence to find queens in course of transform- 

 ing lying in the common tracks and courts of the nests. I 

 have frequently observed the males and workers run over and 

 pass them by unnoticed, especially in the pupal stage. Whe- 

 ther the care of young queens is allotted to particular indi- 

 viduals I am unable to say. I have, however, seen a large 

 worker seize the pupse and carry them into one gallery. In 

 the nest in question thr-ee pupal queens lay in different 

 parts of courts. When the worker seized the first pupa I 

 touched it gently with red ink to enable us to clearly observe 

 its movements among the host of ants. After an absence in 

 the gallery of two minutes it appeared, walked rapidly along 

 the track where the pupal queen lay, then turned almost 

 at a right angle along another track for about 5in., seized 

 another young pupal queen and took the same track back into 

 the gallery where it placed the first. In two minutes more it 

 again appeared, and, taking the one track, passed the entrance 

 on the right where it picked up the second pupa, and, pro- 

 ceeding along another track to the right, seized a tliird pupal 

 queen and bore it away with the clearest deliberation into 

 the same gallery where the previous two were taken. The 

 question of the allotment of labour among ants is one often 

 discussed. The preservation of their young is an instinct 

 common to the vvorkers of all social ants. In communities of 

 ants, like those of the higher groups of animals, more intelli- 

 gent individuals will often occur. The removal of these young 

 queens by the single individual showed very clearly its own 

 undoubted intelligence and instinct for their preservation. 

 In all probability the same ant had previously placed them in 

 the tracks where they lay when we raised the stone. The 

 case further illustrates the reasoning sentient powers of social 

 ants. Huber cites a case of several workers being employed 

 constructing a portion of a new nest. A single ant approached 

 them and communicated his thoughts, whereupon the work 

 done was pulled down and reconstructed on a better plan. 

 The instinct of the preservation of their young exists in the 

 minds of ants apart from their many intelligent habits which 

 ai'e unquestionably acquired during their existence. The fol- 

 lowing case, which occurred with a nest of Huberia striata, is 

 another case m point. On 2nd November, 1892, Mr. T. Sealy, 

 of Tinwald, informed me that he had seen a number of ants 

 busy removing eggs from tlieir nest situated under stones on 



