80 Chapter II. 



will faithfully serve their ravishers and natural ene- 

 mies, without "reflecting" on how they happened to get 

 into this unusual society. 



I have had in my room, for the last twelve years, 

 an artificial nest of F. san guinea (see p. 23). This 

 colony adopted as slaves the workers of all the Formica 

 species to be found in Holland, viz., F. fusca, rufi- 

 barbis, rufa and pratensis. The "slaves" have devel- 

 oped from cocoons, which I had put into the nest 

 during recent years. In free nature the same Formica 

 species are found as slaves in the sanguinea nests, 

 but only one or two of them at a time; in this nest, 

 however, they were all united to form one colony 

 under the suzerainty of Formica sanguinea. 



Yet, this "suzerainty" and "slavery" in the mixed 

 colonies of ants is altogether different from what the 

 same terms imply when applied to human society. 

 Only authors like Ludwig Buechner might be found 

 guilty of confounding ideas to such a degree. There 

 is perfect equality among all the workers of a mixed 

 colony, no less than among all the workers of a 

 simple colony. The very same "constitutional laws" 

 are in force both for masters and slaves ; in other 

 words, the uniform "nest smell," which adheres to all 

 ants reared in the same nest, serves them to recognize 

 one another as members of the same ant community, 

 the differences in species being totally disregarded. 

 The so-called slaves live entirely free in the nest of 

 their ravishers, that is to say, they live according to 

 the same innate instincts which would have formed 

 their rule of conduct at home ; they work for their 

 ravishers, supply them with food and rear their off- 



