119 



CHAPTEK VI. 



RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS. 



It has been already shown that with ants, as with 

 bees, while the utmost harmony reigns between those 

 belonging to the same community, all others are 

 enemies. I have already given ample proof that a strange 

 ant is never tolerated in a community. This of course 

 implies that all the bees or ants of a community have 

 the power of recognising one another, a most surprising 

 fact, when we consider the shortness of their life and 

 their immense numbers. It is calculated that in a 

 single hive there may be as many as 50,000 bees, and 

 in the case of ants the numbers are still greater. In 

 the large communities of Formica "pratensis it is 

 probable that there may be as many as from 400,000 

 to 500,000 ants, and in other cases even these large 

 numbers are exceeded. 



If, however, a stranger is put among the ants of 

 another nest, she is at once attacked. On this point 

 I have satisfied myself, as will be seen in the following 

 pages, that the statements of Huber and others are 

 perfectly correct. If, for instance, I introduced a 

 stranger into one of my nests, say of Formica fusca or 



