INTELLIGENCE IN INSECTS 211 
military tactics displayed in its frequent warlike expeditions 
against other ants might be expected to rank among the 
most intelligent of insects. Polyergus is dependent upon 
its slaves for food, having almost completely lost the in- 
stincts for food taking from its long habituation to parasitic 
habits. There is no physical peculiarity which prevents 
these ants from getting their own food, and occasionally they 
take liquid food when by chance the mouth parts are brought 
in contact with it. As Lubbock, Wasmann and others 
have shown the Amazons if deprived of their slaves will 
starve to death in the midst of plenty without making 
the least effort to secure food of their own accord. As 
Wasmann observes, “their hunger does not compel them 
like other animals to seek for food themselves, but only to 
beg food of other ants by taps of their feelers. The sensitive 
perception of food placed immediately before them, in spite 
of their feeling of hunger, does no longer excite in them the 
natural impulse of tasting it.” We should naturally expect 
that a creature possessing the rudiments of intelligence would 
be able to associate the appearance and odor of food with 
the act of feeding. Possibly the Amazons might, if skillfully 
managed, be taught to form this association, but that they 
do not do so under the stress of starvation shows how poor 
in resources is the emmet mind. 
To the same purport we may cite the following quotation 
concerning ants from Sir John Lubbock: “In order to test 
their intelligence, it has always seemed to me that there was 
no better way than to ascertain some object that they would 
clearly desire, and then to interpose some obstacle which a 
little ingenuity would enable them to overcome. Following 
up, then, the preceding observations, I placed some larve 
in a cup which I put on aslip of glass surrounded by water, 
but accessible to the ants by one pathway in which was a 
