116 ON THE HABITS OF ANTS. [LECT. 



running about. She returned regularly at short intervals, 

 but during the whole day she brought no friend, and only 

 one other ant found the honey, evidently an independent 

 discovery, f/ 



The species of Lasius, as already mentioned, behave 

 very differently. To determine, if possible, whether they 

 can send, as well as bring, their friends to stores of food, 

 I made a number of experiments. For instance, one of 

 my nests of the small brown garden ant, Lasius niger, 

 was connected with a board, on which I was in the habit 

 of placing a supply of food and water. At a short dis- 

 tance from the board I placed two glasses (Fig. 49 b Z/), 

 and on b I placed some food. I then connected the glass 

 b with the board a by three slips of paper, c, d, e, and 

 put an ant to the food. She carried off a supply to the 

 nest, returning for more, and so on. Several friends 

 came with her, and I imprisoned them till the experi- 

 ment was over. When she had passed several times 

 over the paper bridges, I proceeded as follows. Any 

 friends who came with her were excluded from the 

 bridges when she was on them. If she was not there, 

 as soon as a friend arrived at the bridge c, I took up the 

 paper e in my fingers and rubbed it lightly, with a view 

 of removing or blurring the scent ; and as soon as the 

 ant arrived on d, I took up the bridge c, and put it 

 across the chasm from d to b'. Now, if the ant acted 

 on information received, she would of course cross 

 e to 6. If, on the other hand, she went by scent, then 

 she would be at least as likely to go over c to V. The 

 result was, that out of about one hundred and twenty 

 friends who passed over d, only twenty went to the food ; 

 while nearly one hundred passed over c to the empty 



