TERMITES, THE DESTROYERS 87 



would touch them with their feelers, but soon 

 they paid no more attention to the battle ground. 

 The whole affair lasted no more than five minutes. 

 I think it ended only after the termite soldiers 

 had no more sticky liquid left to shoot from their 

 forehead squirt guns. 



While this fight was going on I saw other ants 

 hunting the worker termites and carrying them 

 off in their jaws. The termites had a runway 

 near one edge of the rotten log, and though it 

 was no longer covered they were still using it. 

 For some distance the runway followed the side 

 of a tiny ridge. The ants climbed this ridge to 

 a position where they could reach over and touch 

 the passing termites with their feelers. When 

 it had found a termite victim, I saw one ant run 

 out behind it and bite it about mid-body. After 

 two bites here the ant ran around and bit its 

 head close to its jaws. Perhaps this crushed the 

 termite's jaws so that it could no longer hurt the 

 ant. At any rate, the ant was now ready to pick 

 it up and run off with it. 



One of the stalking ants touched a termite 

 soldier going by, seized him from the side, and, 

 quicker than my eye could follow, dragged him 

 from his place on the trail, over the httle ridge, 

 and threw him down on the other side. The ant 

 turned back to attack the trail again, but this 

 time he met a termite soldier head on and backed 

 quickly away. I watched the robber ants for 



