452 



ADDITIONAI, NOTES 



Whenever I caused a new trail to be formed, or placed on a new 

 disk, I always watched carefully for any signs of communication 

 when the first ants from the food met those from the nest. One would 

 think that these conditions would be ideal for any power of communi- 

 cation on the part of the ants to manifest itself, since the ants on 

 one side knew the way back to the nest and were searching for the 

 food, while those on the other side knew the way to the food and 

 were trying to get back to the nest. Yet I failed to observe anything 

 in the behavior of the ants which I could interpret as communica- 

 tion. To be sure the ants meeting under the above circumstances al- 

 ways stopped and stroked antennae, but when they separated each con- 

 tinued to wander as aimlessly as before, and the gap in the trail was 

 finally bridged by the ants from one side accidentally striking the 

 trail on the other. I do not, of course, mean to say that communi- 

 cation among ants does not exist. In fact, stridulation, gestures, 

 postures, etc., on the part of the ants undoubtedly do represent some 

 form of communication, as has been shown by Wheeler, Forel, and 

 Wasmann. I do mean to say that with this particular species and 

 under these particular conditions I failed to observe anything, which, 

 from its effect upon the behavior of the ants, I could interpret as 

 communication. 



As a rule the queens of M. pharaonis do not leave the nest to 

 feed, but quite often when I placed out some food particularly at- 

 tractive to the ants, such as a piece of fresh beef, especially if the 

 room was quite warm, a number of queens would follow the trail out 

 to it. Ordinarily, however, they did not feed, and I think they were 

 only induced to come out by the fact that a very large number of 

 workers was passing in and out. During the winter I captured fifteen 

 dealated queens from this one colony. 



The queens follow a trail just as the workers do, and without 

 having been over it before. One rather amusing illustration of this 

 was exhibited when I placed a queen, previously isolated, upon a disk 

 having a newly formed trail on it. I first removed the disk from the 

 apparatus and held it in my hands during the experiment. The queen 

 wandered about until she struck the trail, which she at once began 

 to follow. She followed it over the edge to the lower surface, where 

 she continued until she reached the hole in the center of the disk 

 through which the rod had passed. After a little hesitation she 

 crawled through the hole to the upper surface, coming out on the 

 trail above, and thus making it continuous. She continued following 



