120 INSECT BEHAVIOR 



harvestman 1 walks calmly about among the seething multitudes. He 

 is undisturbed and quite ignored even by the soldier ants that sur- 

 round the nurses and rest in clusters upon the walls of the cavern. A 

 wasp has her burrow within the lines also, but she flies in and out, 

 bearing prey for her wasplets at will. The entrance to her burrow 

 is within half an inch of a solid phalanx of resting ants. Many 

 others are moving hastily over the diggings thrown out from her 

 nest, but none enters her domain. 



They are a moral crowd indeed, these army ants. Tomorrow they 

 may seethe forth in a terrible invasion and before them all insects will 

 fall. They will be invincible, merciless, but the order of today for- 

 bids slaughter! Within their very camp other creatures move about 

 at will, yet the ants obey that strange supreme command to rest. Fate 

 is with the wasp and harvestman. 



All is quiet and serene about the camp. There are no signs of out- 

 side activity until late in the afternoon. Then, about five o'clock, six 

 lines of scouts issue from the cavern. One line travels out to the posts 

 of Kalacoon house, another to the west, over the compound in the 

 direction from whence the army appeared. Two more parties go to 

 the south and again two to the west Each of these lines extends for 

 perhaps fifty feet. They form in single file, or at times two abreast, 

 and occasionally a line may be seen returning, while others still 

 advance. 



These are doubtless scouting parties, searching out the ground to 

 be hunted or traveled next. There are no warriors among them until 

 late in the evening, and then only individuals scattered here and there 

 by the wayside, taking no part in the activities of their brothers. The 

 scouts are of two sizes, both, I presume, workers. 



Within the nest, the nurses, and somewhere, hidden from the 

 common horde, the queen still rests, attended by her special ants in 

 1 A species of Phalangidea, commonly called Daddy-Long-Legs. 



