o.90 NATURAL HISTORY. 



_ _ — 



McCook, a prominent American student of these forms, introduced several 

 workers to an artificial nest containing a solitary queen. " One of these 

 soon found the queen, exhibited much excitement, but no hostility, and 

 immediately ran to her sister-workers, all of whom were presently clus- 

 tered upon the queen. As other workers were gradually introduced, they 

 joined their comrades, until the body of the queen (who is much larger 

 than the workers) was nearly covered with them. They appeared to be 

 holding on by their mandibles to the delicate hairs upon the female's body, 

 and continually moved their antennae caressingly. This sort of attention 

 continued until the queen, escorted by workers, disappeared in one of the 

 galleries. She was entirely adopted, and thereafter was often seen moving 

 freely, or attended by guards, about the nest, at times engaged in attending 

 the larvae and nymphs which had been introduced with the workers of the 

 strange colonv." 



Sir John Lubbock, to whose careful observations of the habits of ants 

 we owe the greater part of our knowledge of these forms, says : "I have 

 found that when I put a queen with a few ants from a strange nest, they 

 did not attack her, and by adding others gradually, I succeeded in securing 

 the throne for her." He farther says : " In no case, however, when I have 

 put a queen into one of my nests has she been accepted. Possibly the 

 reason for the difference may be that the ants on which I experimented 

 had been long living in a republic ; for, I am informed, that if bees have 

 been long without a queen, it is impossible to induce them to accept 

 another." 



In the nest the ants exhibit the greatest solicitude for the safety of the 

 queen, keeping her constantly surrounded by a body-guard, which seeks to 

 direct her every motion. When the time for oviposition comes, they care- 

 fully take away the eggs to the breeding-chambers. 



The nests themselves vary considerably. Some are formed above the 

 surface of the earth, by piling up all sorts of refuse, while the greater 

 majority are situated beneath the surface. With us the nests are usually 

 of moderate size ; but occasionally very large ones are seen. It is in the 

 tropics, however, that the most enormous colonies occur, and Mr. Bates 

 " mentions that while he was in Para, an attempt was made to destroy a 

 nest of the sauba ants, by blowing into it the fumes of sulphur, and he saw 

 the smoke issue from a great number of holes, some of them not less than 

 seventy yards apart." The most remarkable ants' nest is one which is found 

 in the Malay Islands. It was first discovered by Professor H. N. Mosely, 

 the naturalist of the ' Challenger ' Expedition, and has been more recently 

 studied by Mr. H. 0. Forbes. This gentleman was collecting a lot of 

 epiphytic orchids from a tree in Java, when " I was totally overrun, during 



