OUR ANTS. 27 



The senses of ants. This is a most interesting subject, and one 

 on whicli a good deal lias been written ; but I have, so far, gleaned 

 little that throws any light on the many vexed questions involved in 

 it in connection with * our ^' ants. I can only refer any member 

 interested in the matter to Sir J. Lubbock's '' The Senses of 

 Animals," as containing the most easily available summary of the 

 question. There is one point in that work, however, on which 

 lam able to offer an * experience.' Lubbock records that a Mutilla 

 (a genus closely allied to the ants) " makes, when alarmed, a 

 rather sharp noise by rubbing one of the abdominal rings against 

 the other ;" a similar organ has been found in the genus Ponera 

 " which, in the structure of its abdomen, nearly resembles Midilla" 

 and finally, in the ' true ants, * has been found " a similar rasp-like 

 organ in the same situation.^' He adds, however, "that ants 

 produce no sounds which are audible to us." I am almost certain 

 however, that I have heard such sounds. When one of the large 

 ' brown paper' nests of Cremasfogaster JRogeyilioferi is violently, and 

 suddenly, disturbed, the ants swarm out in thousands, ' vvagging ^ 

 their abdomens, in the manner so characteristic of Gremastogaster 

 when excited; at such times a distinct hissing sound is audible 

 as if a red-hot cinder had been plunged into water. I had always 

 accounted for this by supposing it was caused by the material of the 

 nest under the feet of the ants, and a similar, though fainter, sound 

 which may be heard when a large nest of Camponotus, or Pohjrachis 

 spinigera, is disturbed, by the rubbing together of the bodies of the 

 ants, who are all in violent movement at once. The passage from 

 Lubbock quoted above, however, leads me to think that this is not so, 

 but that the audible noise is the sum of the individual stridulations 

 of countless ants. The ' tail wagging ' of Gremastogaster would 

 account for the sound made by them being louder, though they are 

 so much smaller than Gamponotus or Pohjrachis. I had asked Mv. 

 Aitken to make some experiments to check the results I thouo-ht 

 I had obtained. Members will no doubt recognize his hand in the 

 following characteristic note which fully supports my contention. 

 " I do not need to experiment. The roar raised by a squadron of 

 " Lobopelta, if you poke at them with a straw, does not require 

 " to be listened for with your hand to your ear. I should like/ 



