INSTINCTS OF HARVESTING ANTS 27 



fore, be capable of detecting its own scent from that 

 of every other individual in the nest, and it follows 

 that every single ant in a community must have a 

 different scent. 



Marvellous as is the sense of smell, it is impossible 

 to consider it as the sole guide in the activities of the 

 harvesters. During certain operations they seem to 

 be impelled to take the right course by some mys- 

 terious sense of direction quite incomprehensible to 

 us. This is well illustrated by the manner in which 

 the ants find their way home when engaged in funereal 

 duties. Certain ants bury their dead, and are even 

 said to follow the corpse with reverence to the grave. 

 The harvesters do not inter their dead beneath the 

 soil nor do they indulge in any funereal ceremonies, 

 but are nevertheless very careful in disposing of the 

 dead bodies of their companions. When a dead ant 

 belonging to the community is discovered, one of the 

 workers takes it in its mandibles and carries it far 

 away from the entrance to the nest. The dead are 

 taken sometimes to a very great distance; on one 

 occasion the ant conveyed the corpse sixty feet from 

 the nest before it had discovered a suitable cemetery. 

 The place chosen for the disposal of the dead is far 

 away from the area of activity of the ants, never in 

 the direction of the harvesting operations. When 

 watching these funereal duties nothing is more striking 

 than the wonderful manner in which the ants are able 

 to maintain the true direction over unknown ground. 

 I killed twenty of the members of one community. 

 Two cemeteries were selected for the disposal of their 

 bodies, one due west and the other due east of the 

 nest, I observed a.n a.nt which carried its dead com- 



