48 Chapter II. 



ing of Polyergus. Our chief argument, however, was 

 the biological fact, that the Amazons do really some- 

 times lap up liquid food, if by chance it comes in con- 

 tact with the lower parts of their mouth. Dr. Smal- 

 ian has undervalued this fact. Not only once, but 

 repeatedly I saw and followed it up with a lens, how 

 some Amazon which had pierced an ant pupa with its 

 mandibles, licked up with her tongue the fluid flowing 

 from the wound, and sometimes spent a considerable 

 time in this occupation. Now, since the reception of 

 food in ants generally takes place by licking, it is hard 

 to understand, why it should be impossible to know 

 in this case, whether the food has "actually been con- 

 sumed." 



Besides Dr. Smalian has failed to notice Adlerz' 

 observations mentioned in the very passage quoted by 

 him. Like myself, Adlerz has witnessed that the 

 Amazons frequently lick up the moisture condensed on 

 the glass walls of their artificial nests. That Amazons 

 are able to feed independently is, therefore, an estab- 

 lished fact which can not be done away with. Why, 

 therefore, do they starve, when they are confined in 

 a test tube together with some honey or some appetiz- 

 ing ant pupae, but separated from their slaves by which 

 they are wont to be fed? The only possible and psy- 

 chologically correct answer is : because their hunger 

 does not compel them, like other animals, to seek for 

 food themselves, but only to beg food of other ants 

 by taps of their feelers. The sensitive perception of 

 the food placed immediately before them, in spite of 

 their feeling of hunger does no longer excite in them 

 the natural impulse of tasting it. With these ants 



