Ants 



When they reach the nest to be pillaged they do not 

 attack it at once, but surround it and await the arrival of 

 the other detachments. This is the signal for the other ants 

 to prepare to defend their home, or to seize their young 

 and attempt to break through the encircling cordon. The 

 latter is a false move, for some of the slave-makers snatch 

 away their charges, whilst the others enter and pillage the 

 nest. Soon the raiders return home laden with grubs and 

 chrysalids, whilst the bereft ants slowly enter their pillaged 

 home and take up the nurture of the few remaining young 

 or await the appearance of future broods. 



The Amazons, of which there are representatives in 

 Europe and America, never excavate their own nests or 

 care for their young. They are even incapable of obtain- 

 ing their own food. For the essentials of food, lodging 

 and education they are wholly dependent on the slaves 

 hatched from the worker cocoons they have stolen from 

 alien colonies. Apart from these slaves they are quite un- 

 able to live : they even dwell in nests whose architecture 

 throughout is that of the slave species. While in the 

 home nest they sit about in stolid idleness or pass long 

 hours begging the slaves for food or cleaning themselves 

 and burnishing their ruddy armour, but when outside the 

 nest on a predatory expedition they display a dazzling 

 courage and capacity for concerted action compared with 

 which the raids of other ants resemble the clumsy efforts 

 of a lot of untrained militia. And what of the slaves? 

 Are they discontented with their lot? Apparently not, 

 for one of the most extraordinary happenings of the 

 Amazonian raids is the obvious excitement of the stay-at- 

 home slaves when the raiders return with their booty. 



54 



