6 PEINCE EEOPOTEJN — ANNIVEESAHY ADDRESS : 



their milk-cows. It is well known that the ants keep a certain 

 kind of animal — aphides — off the back of which they lick a 

 sweet liquid, and it has been observed how they capture these 

 insects and make a place in which to secure them. All such work 

 is done in common, and it has been observed how the ants support 

 each other in their labours, and in obtaining nourishment. When 

 two ants meet they exchange some sort of conversation, and if one 

 of them has his crop full of this liquid from the aphides he lifts his 

 ajiteunse and allows his hungry friend to take some of this liquid 

 for himself. You can never find two ants from the same colony 

 which will not exchange this token of friendship. At one time 

 Sir John Lubbock would not believe that this was possible, but he 

 afterwards fully verified it. This custom is so important that it 

 will very often be found that if two ants from different colonies 

 which ai'e not in friendly relations with each other happen to meet, 

 and one allows the other to lick this syrup, they become friends. 

 But, on the other hand, if two ants from the same nest meet, and 

 one has refused to its family relations to thus share its food, it is 

 treated as an enemy. This fact has been perfectly well established 

 by men who have made close observations of the habits of these 

 interesting insects. 



With these relations existing, let us remark what is the result. 

 The ant is a very small insect ; it has no carapace to protect it ; it 

 has no formidable powers of attack : but in their numbers — in their 

 thousands — the ants are feared by much more important animals. 

 When a sack of ants is emptied upon a meadow, the grasshoppers 

 and spiders, and many other larger animals, at once take to flight. 

 Wasps, even, are attacked by ants. The ants are very severe 

 towards their enemies outside, their wars from nest to nest are 

 sometimes very cruel, but within the nest they find that mutual 

 aid and support are the best means of protecting them against 

 many enemies. However, in addition to the unity which exists in 

 the individual nests, federations of ants' nests have been found. 

 Forel has described such federations, and one of the best naturalists 

 of this country, H. W. Bates, has described in his admirable book, 

 ' The Naturalist on the Amazons,' how, upon the pampas of South 

 America, there exists such federations of white ants, or termites, 

 there being continuous intercommunication between a number of 

 nests. 



Turning now our attention for a while to bees and wasps, 

 we cannot say that amongst bees mutual support is instinctive. 

 On the contrary, they have often been found to become demoralized 



