66 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



information. I never could detect the slightest trace 

 of a fragment of the insect in the jaws of the returning 

 ant, and sometimes the discoverer would merely 

 examine the tarsus of the insect before returning to 

 call out the swarm, and from the hard tarsus it could 

 certainly not tear away a fragment. Moreover, I was 

 later able to convince myself that the swarm was not 

 excited by the sight or smell of a particle of the prey, 

 for I found that certain workers in the community 

 were quite unable to communicate, and though they 

 returned again and again with fragments of the dis- 

 covered insect, they did not in the slightest degree 

 excite the swarm, nor were they able to give any 

 information of their valuable discovery. 



In some way or other it is within the power of a 

 single worker, independent of anything it may carry 

 to the nest, to convey information to a swarm of other 

 workers, and to announce to them the valuable fact 

 that " I have discovered food." But how this process 

 of communication works, by what mechanism the one 

 ant transmits its information or the other ant receives 

 it, I find it not only difficult to understand but even to 

 investigate. I will therefore consider in more detail 

 the second link in the process, as I find it more 

 intelligible ; namely, the power possessed by the 

 solitary ant of directing the struggling, hurrying swarm 

 straight to the discovered insect. 



At first I thought that the ant returning with the 

 news led the swarm from the nest and directed them 

 along the true road ; that the discovering ant was the 

 leader and that the swarm followed in its train. It 

 was necessary to mark the discoverer with a speck 

 of paint in order to investigate the matter. This 



