The Journal of 



Comparative Neurology and Psychology 



Volume XVII SEPTEMBER, 1907 Number 5 



THE HOMING OF ANTS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY 

 OF ANT BEHAVIOR. 



BY 



C. H TURNER. 

 With Plates ii-iv, and One Figure in the Text. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction. 



Technique 367 



Historical Resume 368 



Acknowledgments 369 



I. Experiments on Tropisms 370 



II. Experiments on the Homing IMstinct 378 



III. Experiments on the Power to Profit by Experience 382 



IV. Impressions that Influence Home-Going Ants 395 



V. Have Ants Associative Memory? 412 



VI. Division of Labor Among Ants 420 



VII. Conclusions 423 



Literature Cited 425 



Explanation of Figures 426 



INTRODUCTION. 



Technique. — In the following experiments on ants the attempt 

 has been made to have the conditions so simple that disturbance 

 of the normal activities is reduced to a minimum, and yet to pre- 

 sent in each experiment a definite problem which the ants must 

 solve. Exceptmg where it is otherwise stated, each experiment 

 recorded represents one of several similar experiments. 



The apparatus used consisted chiefly of stages, inclined planes 

 and dark chambers. All of these w^ere constructed of cardboard. 

 Occasionally a Lubbock or a Fielde nest was used, but for most 

 experiments I used a modification of the Janet nest. These nests 

 were 39 x 15 x 2.5 to 3 cm. Each contained a well 10 x 5 x 1.5 cm., 

 two living chambers, each 10x7 cm. and from a few mm. to a cm. 

 or more in depth and a food-chamber of the same dimensions as 

 the living chambers. The edges of the top of the nest, as far back 

 as the beginning of the well, and the partitions between the cham- 



