ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICEOSCOPY, ETC. 597 



whole of the body, and were connected by very short secondary trunks 

 with four or five pairs of stigmata. The setae of the adult are not so 

 complicated in structure as are those of the nymph ; the locomotor 

 limbs are atrophied in the adult, while the wings are, as might be 

 expected, very well developed. 



Habits of Ants.* — In a further communication Sir John Lubbock 

 continues his account of his observations on ants. 



In a former paper he gave a series of experiments made with 

 light of different hues, in order, if possible, to determine whether ants 

 had the power of distinguishing colours. For this purpose he utilized 

 the dread which ants when in their nest have of light. Not unnatu- 

 rally, if a nest is uncovered, they think they are being attacked, and 

 hasten to carry their young away to a darker and, as they suppose, a 

 safer place. He ascertained by hundreds of experiments that if he 

 exposed to light most of the nest, but left any part of it covered over, 

 the young would certainly be conveyed to the dark portion. In this 

 manner he satisfied himself that the different rays of the spectrum act 

 on them in a different manner from that in which they affect us ; for 

 instance, that ants are specially sensitive to the violet ray. He 

 further desired to determine how far their limits of vision agree 

 with ours. This interesting problem he endeavoured to solve 

 as follows. If an ants' nest be disturbed, the ants soon carry 

 their grubs and chrysalides underground again to a place of 

 safety. Sir John, availing himself of this habit, placed some ants 

 with larvee and pupae between two plates of glass about an eighth 

 of an inch apart, a distance which leaves just room enough for the 

 ants to move about freely. He found that if he covered over part of 

 the glass with any opaque substance the young were always carried 

 into the part thus darkened. He then tried placing over the nest 

 different coloured glasses, and found that if he placed side by side a 

 pale yellow glass and one of deep violet, the young were always 

 carried under the former, showing that though the light yellow was 

 much more transparent to our eyes, it was, on the contrary, much less 

 so to the ants. 



So far the author had gone in experiments already recorded. But 

 he now wished to go further, and test the effect upon them of the 

 ultra-violet rays, which to us are invisible. For this purpose, among 

 other experiments, he used sulphate of quinine and bisulphide of 

 carbon, both of which transmit all the visible rays, and are there- 

 fore perfectly colourless and transparent to us, but which completely 

 stop the ultra-violet rays. Over a part of one of his nests he placed 

 flat-sided bottles containing the above-mentioned fluids, and over 

 another part a piece of dark violet glass. In every case the larvae 

 were carried under the transparent liquids, and not under the violet 

 glass. Again, he threw a spectrum into a similar nest, and found 

 that if the ants had to choose between placing their young in the 

 ultra-violet rays or in the red, they preferred the latter. He infers, 

 therefore, that the ants perceive the ultra-violet rays which to our 



* Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zool.) — Not yet published. 



