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. 



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 6 &'), 

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

 fr 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 &'. 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 b'. 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 



