THE COMMUNITY OF THE ANTS 



a drop of water reaches them. Such behaviour has been observed 

 also on the part of the Leafcutting ants. 



The Migratory Ants have even migratory nests. Taocas have 

 often been found in hollow trees or bushes, gathered together in 

 dense masses, the queen and the brood being in the centre of the 

 mass. Passages are left in the living walls, which are used by the 

 workers who carry provisions into the nest; for raiding parties are 

 sent out from such nests, and return to them laden with booty. 

 Often, too, the nests of alien species are utilized after the rightful 

 inhabitants have been destroyed. 



The removal from such nests is effected with the greatest care; 

 for on such occasions no raid is in question, but only a migration. 

 Nothing is killed, for the workers have enough to do to carry the 

 brood, and the soldiers station themselves on either side of the 

 migrating host, protecting it from alien enemies, and to all appear- 

 ances overseeing and arranging everything. The blind species build 

 covered corridors from the old nest to the new, so that the precious 

 brood may be transferred without exposing it to sun or rain. 



The Migratory Ants, like other species, have guests of alien orders, 

 and of these Wasmann has described an incredible number. The 

 guests of these ants are, perhaps, even more remarkable than those 

 of other species, for they are not merely housemates, but accompany 

 their hosts on their marches, hurrying onward in the midst of the 

 hurrying armies. Some, which are really domestic animals, are seen 

 only during a removal from an old nest to a new one ; but there are 

 also hunting companions, who take part in the raids of their hosts, 

 and try to snatch the debris of their booty. 



There must, of course, be something about all these insects which 

 prevents the ants from attacking them. There are thickset beetles 

 with long legs, Histeridae, who are protected by their physical 

 formation, for the mandibles of the ants glide off their rounded, 

 thickly-armoured bodies, and their legs are out of reach, since the 

 moment they are attacked these beetles draw them under their 

 bodies. Many of these beetles are content to live on the crumbs 

 that fall from the raiders' table ; others vary their diet by devouring 

 the dead bodies of their hosts, or even by attacking the living ants. 

 But such beetles are not always protected by their peculiar formation. 

 In the case of the Xenocephalus, a Staphylinid or short-winged 

 beetle which is generally seen doing the goose-step, quite unmolested, 

 in the midst of the marching army, having evolved a sort of pro- 

 tective roof to its body, on which the jaws of the ants can take no 



