246 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



disgorge a little drop of liquid nourishment which he has brought 

 home. The couple are watched. The impudent Lepismina rushes 

 forward, hurls himself between the two ants, snaps the hon- 

 houche, and hurries awa5\ Pursuit is futile, for the thief, as his 

 cognomen polypoda implies, has many legs, and knows how to 

 UBe them. But even these gentlemen, who live by taking the 

 bread from the mouths of others, are not the only objectionable 

 characters with which the respectable ant-citizen has to contend. 

 There is the Antennophorus. Three of these parasites fasten 

 themselves on the body of the Lasiiis, one on each side of the 

 abdomen, and one under the head, where he has the satisfaction 

 of supervising the dietary of his host. The Antennophorus passes 

 easily from one ant to another, always displaying a marked 

 preference for young workers which have not long left the egg ; 

 doubtless, as M. Janet suggests, with a view to profiting by the 

 attention bestowed on the latter by their elder companions. If 

 the Lasins escapes the Antennophorus, he falls a victim to the 

 Discojjoma coniata, in which case one would think that the last 

 state of that Lasius was worse than the first ; but these ants not 

 only submit to, but treat well, their inevitable attaches. 



This enviable spirit of philosophy is curiously demonstrated 

 in the artificial nests, where brief observation shows that while 

 the ants calmly tolerate the Dlscoponia which cling to their 

 bodies, they invariably make an infuriated onslaught upon those 

 they find detached on the floor of the nest. 



M. Janet had made numerous analyses with a view to deter- 

 mining whether any means of oral communication obtains among 

 ants. That two ants are in the habit of hob-a-nobbing by tapping 

 their heads together, and making movements which appear to be 

 gesticulations, has been observed by Biichner. Landois goes 

 further, and maintains, from experiments with a delicate vibra- 

 tory instrument placed on the abdomen, that they possess a 

 language of sounds. This theory, although strongly combatted 

 by no less an authority than Sir J. Lubbock, is endorsed by 

 M. Janet, who states that it is certain that, at any rate, the 

 insects produce peculiar grating noises, which are probably due 

 to the rubbing together of their bodies, and that these sounds, 

 cumulatively resembling the noise of boiling water, accompany 

 many of their characteristic movements. It is also certain that 

 ants possess a sense of hearing very highly developed. The 

 question, however, is still of the character of a Us pendens ; 

 and many who remember to visit M. Janet's ant-hills will 

 have every opportunity and encouragement to investigate for 

 themselves. 



2G, Montague Place, W.C. 



