fielde] 



COMMUNAL LIFE OF ANTS 



249 



that when I introduced one of either segregated group into the 

 nest of the other, the visitor was attacked with all the virulence 

 that marks a meeting of strangers of these two species. But 

 when I introduced into either group an ant of the same age, the 

 offspring of the same queen as were their quondam associates in 

 the mixed nest, then the visitor was received with every sign of 

 ant esteem, including that of granting a participation in the care 



A happy family of ants of four species. Photographed from one of Miss Fielde's mixed colonies 

 established at the Marine Biological Laboratory. 



of the cherished larvse. It was plain that the ants recognized an 

 odor that had not been encountered for seven months. 



Into another mixed nest I put newly hatched small jet-black 

 ants with amber-yellow ants, the two sorts being of different sub- 

 families. When they had spent about forty days together, I 

 sequestered these ants, according to their species, in new nests. 

 When the two groups had been separated for a year, each group 

 received with cherishing hospitality the newly hatched offspring 

 of the queen-mother of their former associates ; but they killed 

 their former comrades when these were introduced into their 

 nest. These ants thus showed that they could remember a certain 

 odor at least one year. 



