EXPEEIMENTS WITH INSENSIBLE ANTS. 99 



in size. The poor ant could not remove it herself, and, 

 being a queen, never left the nest, so that I had no 

 opportunity of doing so. For more than three months 

 none of her companions performed this kind office for 

 her. 



With reference to this part of the subject, also, I 

 have made some experiments. 



January 3, 1876. — I immersed an ant (Lasius 

 niger) in water for half an hour ; and when she was 

 then to all appearance dro^vned, I put her on a strip of 

 paper leading from one of my nests to some food. The 

 strip was half an inch wide ; and one of my marked 

 ants belonging to the same nest was passing continually 

 to and fro over it to some food. The immersed ant lay 

 there an hour before she recovered herself ; and during 

 this time the marked ant passed by eighteen times 

 without taking the slightest notice of her. 



I then immersed another ant in the water for an 

 hour, after which I placed her on the strip of paper as in 

 the preceding case. She was three-quarters of an hour 

 before she recovered: during this time two marked 

 ants were passing to and fro ; one of them went by 

 eighteen times, and the other twenty times ; and two 

 other ants also went over the paper; but none of them 

 took the slightest notice of their drowned friend. 



I then immersed another ant for an hour, and 

 put her on the strip of paper. She took an hour to 

 recover. The same two marked ants as iu the previous 

 observation were at work. One passed thirty times, the 



