CHAPTER V 



COMMUNICATING AND OTHER ANTS 



Phidole indica Mode of attack Power of communication Experiments 

 on faculty of communication Sense of smell Every individual in 

 nest differs Division of labour Attitude of Crcmastogaster 

 Migrations of Acantholepis Sexual forms of Camponotus. 



THE power of ants to communicate intelligence one 

 to another has been at different times affirmed and 

 denied. I have shown how feeble is this power in 

 the Indian harvesters, nor does it seem much more 

 highly developed in Myrmecocystus. It is therefore 

 instructive to consider another species in which this 

 faculty is perfected to an astonishing degree and on 

 which the existence of the community essentially 

 depends. 



A little ant, widely spread through Continental 

 India and ascending to the Hazara valley, is known 

 to science as Phidole indica. I will mention this 

 species with some detail, as I have seen no ant in 

 which the power of communication is developed to so 

 high a degree. It is clear to the most casual observer 

 that two very different kinds of workers exist in a 

 nest of the Phidole. There are the soldiers and the 

 smaller workers. The soldiers are few in number, 

 strong and massive in their general build, while the 

 smaller workers are slender, more agile, and swarm 

 about the nest in hundreds. Nor do we see any 

 intermediate gradations connecting the two different 



60 



