BEMAEKABLE USE OF ANTS IN ASIA MINOR. 405 



On a remarkable use of Ants in Asia Minor. Bj E,obeet 

 MOETON MiDDLETON, Jr., F.L.S., F.Z.S. 



[Eead 6th February, 1896.] 



I HAYE lately tad the opportunity of making tlie acquaintance 

 of Mr. Miltiades D. Issigonis, a G-reek gentleman from Smyrna, 

 now residing in London. Mr. Issigonis fell from his horse in 

 Smyrna about six years ago, and received a severe but clean cut o£ 

 an inch or rather more in length on the forehead above the right 

 eye. In accordance with the custom of the country, he went 

 to a Grreek barber * to have the wound dressed, and the barber 

 employed at least ten living ants to bite the two sides together. 

 Pressing together the margins of the cut with the fingers of the 

 left hand, he applied the insect by means of a pair of forceps 

 held in the right hand. The mandibles of the ant were widely 

 open for self-defence, and as the insect was carefully brought 

 near to the wound, it seized upon the raised surface, penetrated 

 the skin on both sides, and remained tenaciously fixed while the 

 operator severed the head from the thorax, so leaving the 

 mandibles grasping the wound. The same operation was re- 

 peated until about ten ants' heads were fixed on the wound, 

 and lefb in position for three days or thereabouts, when the 

 cut was healed and the heads removed. The ant employed is 

 described by Mr. Issigonis as being about three-eighths of an 

 inch long, very dark brown in colour, and of a particularly fierce 

 disposition. Mr. Issigonis has kindly endeavoured to obtain 

 the ants from Smyrna, and I hope that some may arrive ere 

 long. We have together examined the specimens in the Natural 

 Bistory Museum, by the courtesy of Mr. "W. F. Kirby, F.L.S., 

 and Mr. Issigonis identified a rather large-headed Camponotus 

 from India, not yet specifically named, as being nearer to the 

 species in question than anything else in the National collection. 

 The only other observation of a similar nature hitherto recorded 

 appears to have been that of Mons. Emile Mocquerys, of Eouen, 

 who was in South America fifty or sixty years ago, and was elected 

 a member of the Entomological Society of France in 1844. Sir 

 John Lubbock, in his most valuable work on ' Ants, Bees, and 

 Wasps,' says in chapter 5, with reference to ants generally : — 

 " The tenacity with which they retain their hold on an enemy 



* The barber-surgeons of the Levant still perform the old operations of 

 blood-letting and cupping on English sailors for all sorts of ailments. 

 LINN. JOOEN. — ZOOLOGY, TOL. XXV. 34 



