HONEY ANTS 



most of the ants were lost at once. A few were traced 

 to a bush several feet within the thicket, but their 

 secret was not unravelled that night. The next night 

 also we were baffled. On the third night the ants were 

 again out at the pale of day, and began to move at once, 

 but at a slower pace, perhaps because the scent upon 

 the track had been weakened by a heavy rain during 

 the afternoon. There was no acknowledged leader. A 

 dwarf worker held the van over most of the way; then 

 a minor pushed to the front. But there was no proof 

 of actual leadership at any time in any part of the line. 



In seventeen minutes the ants reached a low tree or 

 bush and were soon distributed over it. Their forms 

 could be traced hunting trunk, branches, and leaves, 

 but it was nearly three hours before the object of their 

 search was found. This delay will not seem unreason- 

 able if the reader will picture the observer wedged in 

 among thick, low branches of a dwarf-oak, holding up 

 a lantern with one hand and using the other to clear 

 space for it, keeping motionless lest he alarm the timid 

 insects and again fail of his quest. In the course of 

 these slow investigations the end of a branch was reach- 

 ed upon which were a number of ants hovering around 

 clusters of brownish-red galls. They moved from gall 

 to gall, not tarrying long upon any one, and often touch- 

 ed them with their mouths. That was all that could 

 be seen in the dim light at the distance one nmst keep. 

 But it was enough. The secret was out! For even in 

 the feeble lantern-light, as it played among the branches, 

 the ants' abdomens were seen to be swollen by the 

 sweets which they had lapped. 



With an assistant's aid the branch was cut off without 

 disturbing the workers, and was carried to the tent, 



101 



