COMMUNICATING AND OTHER ANTS 63 



head and back, and seize on to its limbs ; but it is 

 at the tail of the larva that they make the sternest 

 attack. There they firmly attach themselves with 

 their minute jaws while with their hind legs they 

 cling to every pebble so that the larva in the en- 

 deavour to make good its escape drags behind it a 

 little hillock of pebbles. These impede its progress 

 and give the ants time to bring up reinforcements 

 to the attack. On all sides they besiege the larva, 

 which tries in vain by violent contractions to throw 

 off its enemies. The battle grows hot and fierce. 

 The caterpillar in its struggles now gains the mastery, 

 but ants hurrying on in increasing numbers gradually 

 overpower it. Workers, at intervals, retire from 

 the battle and hasten back to the nest at the greatest 

 speed to call out more reinforcements and hurl them 

 into the fight. The caterpillar weakens ; it cannot 

 face these repeated additions to the strength of its 

 foes. It is overwhelmed by the force of numbers, 

 soon becomes exhausted, and then lies at the mercy 

 of the ants which, clinging in a body round their 

 powerless victim, drag it slowly to the nest. 



I have often watched a contest of this nature in 

 which the prey was almost always vanquished. But 

 the strangest thing I observed in this connection was 

 that, not only did the ants remove their victim larva, 

 but, in addition, the little stones and fragments of 

 grass that had come in close contact with the body 

 of the larva were also dragged deliberately to the 

 nest. I killed a grasshopper and moistened a number 

 of small stones with the juice from its body and then 

 gave them to the ants, and these stones were also 

 removed to the nest. It appears that the ants carry 



