SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ON ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS. 625 



not knowing her way at all. After a wliile slie fell in with some 

 specimens of Lasms flavus, who directly attacked her. I at once 

 set myself to separate them ; bnt whether owing to the Avounds 

 she had received from her enemies, or my rongh, though well- 

 meant handling, or both, she was evidently much wounded, and 

 lay helplessly on the ground. After some time another Formica 

 fusca from her nest came by. She examined the poor sufferer 

 carefully, then picked her up tenderly and carried her away into 

 the nest. It would have been diflG.cult for any one who witnessed 

 this scene to have denied to this ant the possession of humane 

 feelings. 



Again, if an ant is fighting with one of another species, her 

 friends rarely come to her assistance. They seem generally 

 (unless a regular battle is taking place) to take no interest in the 

 matter, and do not even stop to look on. Some species, indeed, 

 in such cases never appear to help one another ; and even when 

 this is the case, as for instance in the genus Lasius, the truth 

 seems to be that several of them attack the same enemy — their 

 object being to destroy the foe, not to save their friend. 



Wasps and Bees. 

 Further Experiments as to tlieir Knowledge of Colour, Sfc. 

 The experiments recorded in one of my previous papei's ( Journ. 

 Linn. Soc. vol. xii. p. 510) tend to indicate that wasps are less 

 guided by colour than bees. I thought, however, that it would 

 be well to make some more experiments on the subject. On the 

 afternoon, therefore, of the 1st September I put a wasp' to some 

 honey on a slip of glass placed over red paper, and, continually 

 sup plying, fresh honey, allowed her to keep on coming till the 5th. 

 I then moved the paper and the honey about 15 inches, putting 

 another drop of honey on another slip of glass, over green paper, 

 in the old place. She returned to the honey on the green paper. 

 I then replaced the honey and red paper as before, and she came 

 back quite straight to it. I then again moved it, and put honey 

 on blue paper in the old place. She returned, however, quite 

 straight to the honey, without taking any apparent notice of the 

 change o£ colour. Sept. 7th, I moved the honey and paper about 

 a foot, and put a drop of honey on glass over blue paper in between. 

 She went to the honey on the blue paper. I then let her come 

 again to the honey on the red three or four times, and then as 

 before moved the paper about a foot, and put another drop of 



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