HI.] RECOLLECTION OF FRIENDS. 85 



marked. The friends were gradually licked clean, and 

 except for a few moments, and that evidently by 

 mistake, were never attacked. The strangers, on the 

 contrary, were not cleaned, were at once seized, dragged 

 about either by one, two, or three assailants, and at 

 length either made their escape from the nest, or 

 were killed. 



It is certainly most remarkable that ants should 

 thus recognise their friends, after an interval of more 

 than a year. I have since repeated these experiments 

 with similar results. 



Thus, I separated a nest of F. fusca into two 

 portions, on the 20th October, 1876, and kept them 

 entirely separate. 



On the 25th February, 1877, at 8 a.m , I put an ant 

 from the smaller lot back among her old companions. 

 At 8.30 she was quite comfortably established among 

 them. At 9, ditto. At 12, ditto, and at 4, ditto. 



June 8th. I put two specimens from the smaller lot 

 back, as before, among their old friends. At 1, they 

 were all right among the others. At 2, ditto. After 

 this I could not distinguish them among the rest, but 

 they were certainly not attacked. 



June 9th. Put in two more at the same hour. Up to 

 3 in the afternoon they were neither of them attacked. 

 On the other hand, two strangers from different nests, 

 whom I introduced at the same time, were both very 

 soon attacked. 



July 14th. I put in two more of the friends at 10.15. 

 In a few minutes they joined the others, and seemed quite 

 at home. At 11, they were among the others; at 12, 

 ditto ; and at 1, ditto. 



