STUPIDITY OF ANTS. 133 



before I discovered that it came from a large 

 black ant with an enormous head, the "soldier" 

 of Paltothyreus tarsatus, who makes his holes 

 in the sand, and emits this odour whenever he 

 is touched or trodden upon. 



I have been watching them carefully lately, 

 and have come to the conclusion that this 

 species at any rate is not gifted with a large 

 amount of common sense : for instance, one will 

 find some dead insect which he wishes to convey 

 to his home in the sand ; in all probability he 

 will forget where that is, although he has only 

 left it a few minutes before, and begin to drag 

 his prey away in the opposite direction, never 

 by any chance going round an obstacle, but 

 struggling over everything in the most foolish 

 way. Presently he will put down his burden 

 and go and look for his hole ; if he finds it 

 he goes back for his prize, by this time having 

 forgotten where he left that ; at last he finds 

 it and gets it home, leaves it on the edge of 

 the hole while he goes down to see if all is 

 right below, and then returns and drags it down 



