CHAPTER IV 



CARNIVOROUS ANTS 



Myrmecocysius settles General habits Division of labour Food 

 Sense of smell Attitude of abdomen Absence of sympathy 

 Mode of founding new colony Intelligence Folly. 



I PASS from the habits of the Himalayan harvesters 

 to consider some other species of ants that occur less 

 frequently in this valley. 



On the Indian borderland, at the foot of a gloomy 

 mass known as the Black Mountain, stands a small 

 stone fort, loopholed and barricaded, as a protection 

 against the border tribes. All round are towering 

 mountains ; those in the distance are clothed in glisten- 

 ing snow ; those near at hand are less rugged and are 

 softened with a covering of pines. A broad valley is 

 enclosed by these encircling hills. It is a green and 

 fertile tract studded with small hamlets and watered 

 with sinuous streams. 



Just outside the fort, under the shadow of the Black 

 Mountain, were some nests of that active little ant, 

 Myrmecocystus setipes. I never saw this species in 

 any other part of Hazara, though it is extremely 

 common in the plains of the Punjab. How strange 

 that I should find it again far away on the extreme 

 frontier! It is such a very different creature from the 

 harvesters that I will give a short description of its 

 habits and endeavour to contrast the two species. 



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