Turner, Homing of Ants. 



381 



homing instinct, they would have gone in a practically straight 

 line from the paper to the nest and back again. 



To test this matter further many experiments similar to the 

 following one were tried in the field. I am uncertain of the species 

 of the ant used in this experiment, but it was one of the small 

 southern camponotids. The ant had its home in the baseboard 

 of our front porch. At the time this experiment was begun, 

 many of them were busy moving to and from some aphids that 

 were feeding on the leaves of a vine that shaded the portico. By 

 searching, I soon found a leaf upon which there was only one ant. 

 This leaf was removed and inserted, by the petiole, in a notch in 

 one of the brick supports of the veranda. The hole in which I had 



Text-Fig. I. Path of ant in finding its way home; see text. L, leaf; iV, entrance to nest; P P, 

 porch. The arrows indicate the direction in which the ant moved. 



placed the leaf was only two feet from the nest opening. The ant 

 acted as though dead for a while and then it thoroughly explored 

 the leaf. From the leaf it mounted the pillar and went down- 

 wards (away from the nest) almost to the ground. It then went 

 first to the right and then to the left and then zigzagged upwards 

 again to the leaf. After again exploring the leaf it returned to 

 the pillar and, after passing up and down several times, returned 

 to the leaf. After another exploration of the leaf it returned to 

 the wall and after a little meandering returned to the leaf. After 

 another exploration it returned and zigzagged slowly upwards 

 until it reached the baseboard. Then it at once increased its 

 speed and hastened to the nest (Text Fig. i). The leaf was placed 



