642 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Sept. 



THE EEACTIONS OF ANTS TO MATERIAL VIBRATIONS. 



BY ADELE M. FIELDE and GEORGE H. PARKER. 



While it is well established that some insects react to sound vibra- 

 tions that reach .them through the air, and in this sense may be said to 

 hear, many competent authorities, such as Huber (1810), Ferris (1850), 

 Forel (1874, 1900), and Lubbock (1894), have admitted their inability 

 to bring to light any evidence that ants are thus stimulated. Even 

 the discovery of the so-called chord otonal organs in ants by Lubbock 

 (1894) and Janet (1894) has not led to positive results, so far as the 

 reactions of these animals to material vilDrations are concerned, though 

 two American investigators, Weld (1899) and Metcalf (1900), have 

 claimed that ants are very sensitive to certain tones. 



Because of these somewhat conflicting opinions, it seemed to us de- 

 sirable to reinvestigate this question,^ and for this purpose we carried 

 out experiments on the following species of ants: 



Camponotine ants: 

 Camponotus pennsylvanicus (Deg.), workers; 

 Formica sanguinea Latr., queens and workers; 

 F. fusca L., var. suhsericea Say, queens and workers; 

 Lasius umbratus (Nyl.), queens and workers; 

 L. latipes (Walsh), workers. 



Myrmicine ants: 

 Stenanima fidvum Roger, var. piceum Emery, queens and workers; 

 Cremastogaster lineolata (Say), queens and workers. 



Poncrine ants: 

 Stigmatomma pallipes (Haldm.), workers. 



All these ants had lived more than a month in the artificial nests 

 in which they were tested. They had established their nest-odor, 

 had their young in charge and were well domesticated in their respec- 

 tive abodes. 



These ants were tested for two general classes of material vibrations : 

 first, those that reached them through the air surrounding them, and, 

 secondly, those from the solid base upon which the ants rested. 



^ These investigations were made in the summer of 1903, at the Marine 

 Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass. 



