108 A DEAD QUEEN. 



she was still alive, but on the loth, notwithstanding all 

 their care, she was dead ! 



At the present time I have two other ants perfectly 

 crippled in a similar manner, and quite unable to move, 

 which have lived in two different nests, belonging also 

 to F. fiisca, the one for five the other for four months. 



In May 1879 I gave a lecture on Ants at the Koyal 

 Institution, and was anxious to exhibit a nest of 

 Lasius flavus with the queen. While preparing the 

 nest, on May 9, we accidentally crushed the queen. 

 The ants, however, did not desert her, or drag her 

 out as they do dead workers, but, on the contrary, 

 carried her with them into the new nest, and subse- 

 quently into a larger one with which I supplied them, 

 congregating round her, just as if she had been alive, 

 for more than six weeks, when we lost sight of her. 



In order to ascertain whether ants knew their 

 fellows by any sign or pass word, as has been suggested 

 in the case of bees, I was anxious to see if they could re- 

 cognise them when in a state of insensibility. I tried 

 therefore the following experiments with some specimens 

 of Lasius flavus. 



September 10, at 6 p.m., a number of these ants were 

 out feeding on some honey, placed on one of my tables, 

 and surrounded by a moat of water. I chloroformed 

 four of them and also four from a nest in my park, at some 

 distance from the place where the first had been origi- 

 nally procured, painted them, and put them close to the 

 honey. Up to 8.20 the ants had taken no notice of 



