98 NEGLECT OF COMPANIONS IF IN TROUBLE. 



Again, some specimens of Cr^emastogaster scutellaris 

 were feeding quietly (May 22) on some honey spread on 

 a slip of glass, and one of them had got thoroughly 

 mixed in it. I took her out and put her on the glass 

 close by. She could not disentangle herself ; not one of 

 her friends took the least notice of her, and eventually 

 she died. I then chloroformed one, and put her on the 

 board among her friends. Several touched her, but 

 from 12 to 2.30 p.m. none took any particular notice 

 of her. 



On the other hand, I have only on one occasion seen 

 a living ant expelled from her nest. This happened in a 

 community of F. fusca. I observed (April 23, 1880) 

 an ant carrying another belonging to the same commu- 

 nity away from the nest. The condemned ant made a 

 very feeble resistance. The first ant carried her burthen 

 hither and thither for some time, evidently trying to 

 get away from the nest, which was enclosed in the usual 

 manner by a fur barrier. After watching for some time 

 I provided the ant with a paper bridge, up which she 

 immediately went, dropped her victim on the far side, 

 and returned home. Could this have been a case in 

 which an aged or invalid ant was being expelled from 

 the nest ? 



I have often had ants in my nests to which mites 

 had attached themselves. 



Thus, on October 14, 1876, I observed that one 

 of my ants (Formica fusca) had a mite attached 

 to the underside of her head, which it almost equalled 



