176 BRITISH ANTS. 



between them. Forel states that it is everywhere found in perpetual 

 competition with Donisthorpea nigra, D. flava, Formica fusca, and 

 species of the genus Myrmica 27 . Fowler records that he discovered 

 T. caespitum and D. umbrata in company under a stone in the 

 Landslip near Ventnor 36 , and I found a colony under the same 

 stone as D. flava on a bank at Tenby. 



Battles are frequent between different colonies of T. caespitum, 

 which often arise through disputes over booty. Forel graphically 

 describes some of these battles 28 . On April 24th, 1870, he observed 

 an immense combat, which extended over a length of thirty metres 

 on the slope of grass at the entrance to the University of Zurich. 

 The combat was equally violent over this whole space, and he was 

 unable to distinguish whence each party came out. The enemies 

 were identical in colour, size, etc., and the battle was very desperate, 

 thousands of dead strewing the ground. He saw the combatants 

 bending their gasters under to sting each other, and making 

 violent efforts to carry their antagonists off. Generally three or 

 four ants surrounded another, and when they were separated the 

 latter was found to be half dead, having some of its members cut 

 off. These combats lasted for over a month with variable extension 

 and intensity ; on May 20th, it being very hot, their vivacity was 

 astonishing, but not many deaths occurred, their fury being less 

 great. In two cases which he observed at Vaux, he was able to 

 distinguish the nest of each party, the one being composed of ants 

 of large size, the other of very small ones. The victorious party 

 arrived in great haste, in a column, without separating from each 

 other, and laid siege to the entrances of the subterranean nest of 

 the vanquished. On one occasion he was able to recognize the 

 cause of the trouble . After the ' ' Amazon Ant ' ' (Polyergus rufescens) 

 had pillaged a small nest of Formica sanguinea, and had retired, 

 he noticed workers of T. caespitum coming out of the ground, to 

 cut up, and carry off into their nests, some pupae which were lying 

 on the dome of the sanguinea nest. The workers belonged to two 

 different colonies of T. caespitum, and a fierce battle soon started 

 between them. 



McCook also records similar battles in Philadelphia ; he collected 

 some of the combatants and placed them in a bottle, which con- 

 tained earth, to form an observation nest. He states that the 

 combat lasted for over two weeks, but that if he introduced a little 

 eau-de-Cologne, it put a stop to the fighting, and caused the 

 combatants to live together in amity 30 31 . 



I have kept a colony of this ant in captivity, in an observation 

 nest, since July, 1911, and give a few extracts from my notebook 

 for this nest : 



July 8th, 1911, a deflated female and a number of workers and 

 larvae taken under a stone at Whitsand Bay July 12th intro- 

 duced into a four-chambered Janet nest July 27th pupae now 



