38 HA R VESTING A NTS. 



Atta barbara, Formica cruentaia, F. erratica, and espe- 

 ciall}^ Myrw'ica ccBspitiim may sometimes be seen fight- 

 ing in this desperate fashion. Rival colonies of 

 Mynnica ccBsjpitum often gather for tlie battle into 

 dense masses three or four inches deep, and the 

 place of conflict will be seen on the following day 

 strewn with the dead, and this though the majority 

 of the slain are carried oft* for food by the victors. 



But the most singular contests are those which 

 are waged for seeds by A. barbara, when one colony 

 plunders the stores of an adjacent nest belonging to 

 the same species, the weaker nest making prolonged 

 though, for the most part, inefficient attempts to 

 recover their property. 



In the case of the other species of ant which I 

 have watched fighting, the strife would last but a 

 short time — a few hours or a day — but A. barbara wdll 

 carry on the battle day after day and week after week. 

 I was able to devote a good deal of time to watching 

 the progress of a predatory war of this kind, waged 

 by one nest of barbara against another, and which 

 lasted for forty-six days, from Jan. 1 8 to March 4 ! 



I cannot of course declare positively that no ces- 

 sation of hostilities may have taken place during 

 the time, but I can affirm that whenever I visited the 

 spot, and I did so on twelve days, or as nearly as 

 possible, twice a week, the scene was one of war 

 and spoliation such as that which I shall now 

 describe. 



An active train of ants, nearly resembling an ordi- 

 nary harvesting train, led from the entrance of one 

 nest to that of another lower down the slope, and 

 fifteen feet distant ; but on closer examination it 

 appeared that though the great mass of seed-bearers 



