96 EXPERIMENTS. 



laid her gently on her back close to the entrance into 

 the nest. Soon an ant came up to the poor sufferer, 

 crossed antennae with her for a moment, then went 

 quietly on to the syrup and began to feed. Afterwards 

 three other ants did the same ; but none took any more 

 notice of her. 



August 15. I found at 1 P.M. a Myrmica ruginodis 

 which, probably in a fight with another ant, had 

 lost the terminal portion of both her antennae. She 

 seemed to have lost her wits. I put her into her 

 nest ; but the others took no notice of her ; and after 

 wandering about a little, she retired into a solitary place, 

 where she remained from 3 P.M. to 8 without moving. 

 The following morning I looked for her at 5.30, and 

 found her still at the same spot. She remained there 

 till 9, when she came out. She remained out all day ; 

 and the following morning I found her dead. 



Indeed, I have often been surprised that in certain 

 cases ants render one another so little assistance. The 

 tenacity with which they retain their hold on an 

 enemy they have once seized is well known. M. 

 Mocquerys even assures us that the Indians of Brazil 

 made use of this quality in the case of wounds ; causing 

 an ant to bite the two lips of the cut and thus bring 

 them together, after which they snip off the ant's head, 

 which thus holds the lips together. He asserts that he 

 has often seen natives with wounds in course of healing 

 with the assistance of seven or eight ants' heads! 1 



1 Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 2 s6r. torn. ii. p. 67. 



