THE INTELLIGENCE OF ' 'THE LOWER ANIMALS". 95 



or to discharge the functions of workers, they are use- 

 less members of the ant community and must finally 

 effect a degeneration of the entire species of the Formica 

 sanguinea. Now Wasmann has shown by a great num- 

 ber of facts, that the existence of these pseudogynes 

 must be ascribed to the rearing of the guest Lome- 

 chusa. l ) As regards the explanation of this pheno- 

 menon nothing certain has as yet been ascertained. 

 Wasmann is of the opinion, as we have stated else- 

 where, that the repeated rearing of the beetle causes 

 a gradual change in the brooding instincts of the ants, 

 so that the pseudogynes are but a developmental stage 

 of such larvae as were originally destined to become 

 females, but were in the course of their later develop- 

 ment transformed into workers. Be this as it may, the 

 fact that these encumbrances on the commonwealth 

 come into existence and multiply with such rapidity, 

 is the fault of the Formica sanguinea itself. We should 

 expect, therefore, that at least this circumstance would 

 rouse the attention of the ants and make them realize 

 the deplorable condition of their colony. But no! 

 Instead of murdering their hostile guests one by one, 

 they continue to give them their best attention, to 

 sacrifice for their sake hundreds of their own offspring 

 and to make out of the rest degenerated creatures, 

 good for nothing. And not one of the numerous in- 

 habitants of the various colonies becomes aware of these 



1 ) How far the very same may be proved for the corres- 

 ponding American species we have shortly explained in our 

 paper on "Formica sanguinea, subsp. rubicunda, Em. and 

 Xenodusa cava Lee, etc.," Entomological News, December, 

 1904. 



