SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ON THE HABITS OP ANTS. 237 



Some further observations on F.fasca, viz. on January 15th, 

 when a stranger was attacked, whereas twice on the 16th, twice 

 on the 19th, thrice on the 22ad, twice on the 24th, and thrice 

 on the 26th of the same month, all resulted in a friend not being 

 attacked*. 



I must, however, point out one thing which must be taken into 

 consideration. As I sometimes transposed ants from one division 

 of the nest to the other, it might be said that some of the friends 

 were among those which had been brought more recently from 

 the other half of the nest. 



Of the ants thus transposed, there were, however, altogether, in 

 nest No. 5, only thirteen,in nest No. 4 twenty-three, some of which, 

 moreover, must certainly have been among those that died. After 

 the beginning of November all the transfers were made from No. 4 

 into No. 5. Since December last thirty-one ants have been so 

 transferred ; even assuming then that I had unluckily hit upon all 

 the transferred ants (which is of course little short of an impossibi- 

 lity), eight of them, at any rate, had not been in nest No. 5 since 

 August 1875. 



Thus, then, for more than a year these ants remembered their old 

 companions, as is shown by the fact that they received them ami- 

 cably while they attacked strangers. It is surprising that the 

 ants of a nest should all know one another ; but that this should 

 be still the case after more than a year's separation seems to me 

 not the least marvellous point connected with them. 



* The following cases have been added since the reading of this paper : — 

 Feb. 11 two friends, Feb. 12 three, Feb. 13, 15, and 19, and March 11 and 12, 

 one friend, March 18 two friends, April 21 one, and April 22 and 23 two friends, 

 none of which when introduced were attacked. 



