Ants, v- ^-'-^ 49 



VII. 



1. Accordingly, on August 20, 1875, I divided a 

 colony of ants, so that one half were in one nest, 

 A, and the other half in another, B, and were kept 

 entirely apart. 



On October 3, I put into nest B a stranger and 

 an old companion from nest A. They were marked 

 with a spot of colour. One of the ants imme- 

 diately flew at the stranger ; of the friend they took 

 no notice. 



This experiment I repeated many times, and 

 always with the same result. 



2. I separated one of my colonies of ants into two 

 halves on August 4, 1875, and kept them entirely 

 apart. From time to time I put specimens from 

 the one half back into the other. At first the 

 friends were always amicably received, but after 

 some months' separation they were occasionally 

 attacked, as if some of the ants, perhaps the 

 young ones, did not recognise them. Still they 

 were never killed, or driven out of the nest, so that 

 evidently when a mistake was made, it was soon 

 recognised. No one who saw the different manner 

 in which these ants and strangers were treated 

 could have the slightest doubt that the former were 

 recognised as friends and the latter as enemies 



E 



