OBSERVATIONS ON ANTS 119 



distance of at least three hundred feet. This is not unusual. They 

 move thus for hours at a time and their numbers are enormous. I 

 estimate that this particular army contained at least half a million 

 individuals. 



The Army ant remains in no regular home. They are a crowd of 

 gypsies, that travel throughout their lives, living upon the land and 

 carrying their possessions with them. In the line of march, one 

 sees thousands of nurses carrying eggs, larvae and pupae. They are 

 usually in the center of the column, guarded on either side by workers 

 of various sizes and soldiers with tremendous heads and mandibles, 

 shaped like elephant tusks and gleaming like ivory. Now and again 

 a lieutenant rushes back along the line, sometimes charging through 

 the thick of the column as though keeping order or searching for a 

 member out of step that might hinder the march. All is magnificent 

 order and system, like a huge splendidly organized army of soldiers, 

 efficient to a man and disciplined into machine-like unity of action. 



By mid-day the army was in its new quarters, encamped and ready 

 for the next march or hunt. Meanwhile, until the order comes to 

 move, there is much to be done. There are hundreds of eggs and 

 young to be cleaned and cared for. They must be guarded and fed 

 and kept warm lest injury result and the future of the tribe be endan- 

 gered. 



As they clean and brush the youngsters, the nurses gather in great 

 clusters throughout the camp, one upon another, sometimes twenty 

 deep and scattered everywhere among this living mass one sees the 

 gleam of adolescent insects. All about them move other members of 

 the clan, passing in and out among the company streets, each bent 

 upon some important bit of work that collectively forms the superb 

 organization before us. 



They accomplish one great task at a time, eliminating and neglect- 

 ing all others, which at other times would claim their attention. A 



