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CHAPTER VI. 



RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS. 



IT has been already shown that with ants, as with 

 bees, while the utmost harmony reigns between those 

 belonging to the same community, all others are 

 enemies. I have already given ample proof that a strange 

 ant is never tolerated in a community. This of course 

 implies that all the bees or ants of a community have 

 the power of recognising one another, a most surprising 

 fact, when we consider the shortness of their life and 

 their immense numbers. It is calculated that in a 

 single hive there may be as many as 50,000 bees, aud 

 the case of ants the numbers are still greater. In 

 ic large communities of Formica pratenaia it is 

 jbable that there may be as many as from 400,000 

 500,000 ants, and in other cases even these large 

 lumbers are exceeded. 



If, however, a stranger is put among the ants of 

 lother nest, she is at once attacked. On this point 

 have satisfied myself, as will be seen in the following 

 jes, that the statements of Huber and others are 

 irfectly correct. If, for instance, I introduced a 

 inger into one of my nests, say of Formica fusca or 



