5(i HARVESTING ANTS. 



ant's nest, without asking whether there are any 

 checks to their increase, and if so, what these checks are. 

 I know ver}^ little of what foreign enemies they may 

 have, though I have occasionally seen them captured 

 by lizards, Cicindela beetles, and spiders,* and it is 

 well known that the females are eagerly sought for 

 b}^ birds at the season when they are above ground, 

 and about to found new colonies ; but I believe that 

 ants are the ants' worst enemies, for fearful slaugh- 

 ter and mutilation often result from the encounter of 

 armies of the same race, but belonging to different 

 nests. 



Harvesting ants have nothing to do, as far as 

 I have been able to discover, with aphides, cocci, 

 and the like, nor do they seek for any of those 

 sweet secretions which are the staple food of the 

 generality of ants ; they live, however, on very 

 friendly terms with certain yellowish-white and 

 satiny-coated " silver-fish " {Lepisma), which are found 

 in the passages and chambers of the nests ; but 

 what their relations are to these creatures and to 

 certain beetles which have been found in the nests of 

 Atta harhara in Spain and Syria is unknown. It is 

 possible that by carefulty watching captive ants in 

 company with these creatures under very favourable 

 conditions, something further might be learned on 

 this head. My captive ants constructed all their 



* I have seen tlie remains of ants at the bottom of the tube of trap-door 

 sijitler nests, and watched a hunting sjiider, Lycosa, capture a large black 

 ant [Formica xjubcscens) , by entangling it in threads, which it deftly spun 

 about its limbs, while running rapidly r^und the struggling victim in a 

 circle, and dodging out of the way of the ant's mandibles. In England 

 one may frequently see ants caught in the spiders' webs among the rose- 

 bushes, and Mr. Blackwall says, in his Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland, 

 that Theridion riparium lives principally on ants. 



