COMMUNICATING AND OTHER ANTS 81 



curled up their slender legs, passively surrendered 

 their lives to the care of their sterile sisters, and sub- 

 mitted to the hardships of the journey until they were 

 lodged safely in the nest. Thus do the workers guard 

 and cherish the sexual forms on whom the future life 

 of the race depends. 



How variable are the habits and instincts of ants, 

 even among members of the same nest. I have 

 endeavoured to tell something of them as seen in the 

 common species of this valley. But it matters not 

 how their labour varies, we always see the same 

 underlying principle of the subordination of each one 

 to the well-being of all. The individual is nothing ; 

 the community is supreme. The single ant is lost 

 when separated from the formicary. So organized is 

 the social structure, so dependent is each ant on its 

 fellows, that when it finds itself alone it is helpless. 

 It cannot even live unless it again joins the throng. 

 Its brain, though infinitely complex, exists not for the 

 single ant, but as an integral part of the whole com- 

 munal mind. Each individual is as a single cell of 

 which the commune is the developed being ; each 

 brain is a single atom submerged in the restless spirit 

 of the swarrn. 



