BIE JOHW LITBBOCK ON ANTS, BEBS, AND WASPS. 217 



Observations on the Habits of Ants, Bees, and "Wasps. — Part IV. 

 By Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., E.E.S., F.L.S., D.C.L., 

 Yice- Chancellor of the University of London. 



[Eead February 1, 1877.] 



(Plate XVII.) 



Ants. 



In my last paper on this subject ( Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool. vol. xii. 

 p. 445) I recorded some experiments showing the singular reluc- 

 tance of Ants to let themselves drop even for a very short distance, 

 and their want of ingenuity in bridging over chasms. Since then 

 I have varied the experiments in the following manner. 



Want of ingenuity in crossing Chasms. 

 I filled a saucer (woodcut, fig. 1, S) with water and put in it a 

 block of wood (W), on the top of which I fastened a projecting 

 wooden rod (B), on the end of which I placed a shallow glass cell 

 (A P) containing several hundred larvae. From this cell I allowed 

 a slip of paper to hang down to within -^q of an inch of the upper 

 surface of the artificial nest (N). At one side I put another block 

 of wood (C) with a lateral projection (D) which hung over the cell 

 containing the larvas. I then made a connexion between D and 

 A, so that ants could ascend C, and, passing over D, descend upon 

 the larvae. I then put some specimens of Lasius niger to the larvae, 

 and soon a large number of ants were engaged in carrying off 

 the larvae. When this had continued for about three hours. I 

 raised D -^^ of an inch above A. The ants kept on coming and tried 

 hard to reach down from D to A, which was only just out of their 

 reach. Two or three, in leaning over, lost their foothold and 

 dropped into the larvae ; but this was obviously an accident ; and 

 after a while they aU gave up their efforts and went away, losing 

 their prize, in spite of most earnest efforts, because it did not occur 

 to them to drop y^ of an inch. 



Diagram to illustrate experiments described in text. 

 LINN. JOURN.— ZOOLOGY, VOL. XIII. 19 



