COMMUNICATING AND OTHER ANTS 61 



classes. They are quite distinct in build, and we 

 shall see that they perform different functions. The 

 soldiers seem to be in about one to five hundred of 

 the smaller workers. Each possesses an enormous 

 square head, large out of all proportion to its slender 

 body, and severed above by a deep median cleft. It 

 is of a dark brown colour with a light red thorax 

 clothed in a few pale hairs. From the thorax a pair 

 of sharp spines projects upwards, and behind is attached 

 a glossy, almost black abdomen. The smaller workers 

 are scarcely one-eighth of an inch in length, not very 

 much shorter than the soldiers, but distinctly less 

 powerful and robust. I do not think the head of a 

 smaller worker can be one-tenth the size of that of 

 a soldier, nor has it the peculiar deep cleft that nearly 

 severs the head of a soldier into two separate lobes ; 

 though for some reason, possibly connected with its 

 more highly developed functions, it possesses distinctly 

 longer antennae. 



I will pass immediately to the power of communica- 

 tion in this species, which is remarkably acute. These 

 ants are carnivorous and capture insects and larvae 

 alive. The workers are so very small that by their 

 individual strength they can effect little. It is only 

 by the combined efforts of the whole community, 

 under the direction of the soldiers, that a capture is 

 made. 



As soon as a worker discovers a caterpillar or other 

 suitable material for food, it proceeds to make a care- 

 ful examination of its prey. It runs all over the 

 caterpillar, exploring it with its sensitive antennae, 

 shaking it with its jaws and attempting to drag it to 

 the nest. The worker, satisfying itself that the dis- 



