INSTINCT 147 



ants have been so thoroughly adapted to the institution of 

 slavery they cannot feed themselves, but must be fed by 

 slaves. 



Modern observers of ant societies have turned up so many 

 parallels to human society that one may well wonder how 

 human is the ant, how ant-like the human? Formerly it was 

 thought that the ant's Hfe was all work and no play; the ant 

 was the real "eager beaver" of the animal world. "Go to 

 the ant thou sluggard" it now appears would as likely as 

 not show just another sluggard. D. W. Morley finds that 

 ants spend many hours just sunning themselves and lolling 

 around, or they play much like human youngsters by stag- 

 ing mock battles and wrestling matches. When waking up 

 from a siesta they stretch their six legs and open their man- 

 dibles in a wide yawn. It now appears that actually most ants 

 have to be "stirred up" or "urged on" by individuals who 

 look like the other ants physically but seem to differ psycho- 

 logically. These few nervous "go getter" ants, called "ex- 

 citement centers," are the real leaders of the colony. When 

 something has to be done, they go at it furiously and seem to 

 be able to spread their own excitement throughout the 

 w^hole colony so that soon all is bustling activity for awhile. 

 Removal of these few eager workers, observers say, slows 

 the Hfe of the colony down to such an extent that it may 

 disintegrate. 



Except for humans, ants are the most successful organisms 

 on earth, and, like humans, have no serious enemy except 

 their own kind. Ants wage all kinds of war against other 

 ants: raids for food, for territory, for slaves, and for what 

 would seem to be just plain prejudice and hate. And yet it 

 has been shown that young unconditioned ants from hostile 

 colonies can be mixed together in a peaceful colony, just 

 like human youngsters of different ancestry who have not 

 been indoctrinated with parental hate. 



The instincts which control the complex activity of com- 

 munal life in the insects have evolved through intermediate 



