ANTS. 65 
cleaning themselves with the combs and brushes with which 
their legs are furnished. These same toilet appliances are 
used by them in a friendly way towards each other, and are 
also much used in keeping the young ones tidy. With this 
love of cleanliness it is perhaps no more than might have been 
expected, that when any alien creature has made its way 
into the formicary and has shown itself likely to be useful 
in the way of tidying up, it has been allowed to remain, 
However the thing may have arisen, there the scavengers 
are, in almost every old-established formicary where their 
services are likely to be useful, 
Lastly, there are some few animals occasionally found 
along with ants whose use in the household nobody has yet 
been able even to guess at. Are they there as unbidden 
guests like our rats and mice? Are they pets? Have they 
Some odour which the ants like? Do they act in some way 
beneficial to the ants, or what ? Some day we may get 
answers to these questions. It has been stated that nearly 
six hundred different species of arthropods—mostly insects, 
and chiefly beetles—have been found living along with ants, 
British or foreign; and many of these, especially of the 
beetles, are found nowhere else than in formicaries, 
Before passing on to make reference to the inter-relation 
of ants and flowers, a few words must be said about ants 
when sick or dead. With regard to the former case, the 
evidence appears somewhat contradictory. Ants have been 
Seen to tend and feed and otherwise help an injured fellow- 
worker; but in some cases this appears to be done with 
an eye to keeping up the number of useful workers rather 
than from any disinterested motive, as hopeless cases appear 
usually to be left to take: care of themselves, In the case of 
the carcases of ants when dead, there can be no doubt that 
the living ones do carry them away and sooner or later 
deposit the dead body in some place specially set apart for the 
purpose. Mr Farren White gives some very interesting 
particulars relating to these matters (op. cit., chap. xi.), to 
which further reference should be made by those who are 
interested in such matters. 
There cannot be any doubt that ants do display most 
VOL. IL. 5 
