PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 3^1 



not far distant from each other. To these little bustling creatures a 

 square foot of earth is a territory worth contending for ; their droves of 

 Aphides equally valuable with the Hocks and herds that cover our plains ; 

 and the body of a fly or a beetle, or a cargo of straws and bits of stick, 

 an acquisition as important as the treasures of a Lima fleet to our seamen. 

 Their wars are usually between nests of different species ; sometimes, 

 however, those of the same, when so near as to interfere with and incom- 

 mode each other, have their battles ; and with respect to ants of one 

 species Myrmica rubra, combats occasionally take place, contrary to the 

 general habits of the tribe of ants, between those of the same nest. I 

 shall give you some account of all these conflicts, beginning with the last. 

 But I must first observe, that the only warriors amongst our ants are the 

 neuters or workers; the males and females being very peaceable creatures, 

 and always glad to get out of harm's way. 



The wars of the red ant (M. rubra) are usually between a small 

 number of the citizens ; and the object, according to Gould, is to get rid 

 of a useless member of the community (it does not argue much in favor 

 of the humanity of this species if it be by sickness that this member is 

 disabled), rather than any real civil contest. " The red colonies," says 

 this author, " are the only ones I could ever observe to feed upon their own 

 species. You may frequently discern a party of from five or six to twenty 

 surrounding one of their own kind, or even fraternity, and pulling it to 

 pieces. The ant they attack is generally feeble, and of a languid com- 

 plexion, occasioned, perhaps, by some disorder or other accident."^ I 

 once saw one of these ants dragged out of the nest by another, without its 

 head; it was still alive, and could crawl about. A lively imagination 

 might have fancied that this poor ant was a criminal, condemned by a 

 court of justice to suffer the extreme sentence of the law. It was more 

 probably, however, a champion that had been decapitated in an unequal 

 combat ; unless we admit Gould's idea, and suppose it to have suffered 

 because it was an unprofitable member of the community.^ At another 

 time I found three individuals that were fighting with great fury, chained 

 together by their mandibles ; one of these had lost two of the legs of one 

 side, yet it appeared to walk well, and was as eager to attack and seize 

 its opponents as if it was unhurt. This did not look like languor or 

 sickness. 



The wars of ants that are not of the same species take place usually 

 between those that differ in size ; and the great endeavoring to oppress 

 the small are nevertheless often out-numbered by them, and defeated. 

 Their battles have long been celebrated ; and the date of them, as if it 

 were an event of the first importance, has been formally recorded. ^"Eneas 

 Sylvius, after giving a very circumstantial account of one contested with 

 great obstinacy by a great and small species on the trunk of a pear tree, 

 gravely states, " This action was fought in the pontificate of Eugenius IV., 

 in the presence of Nicholas Pistoriensis, an eminent lawyer, who related 



> Gould, 104. 



* One would think the writer of the account of ants in IMouffet had been witness to 

 something; similar. "If ihey see any one idle,'' says he, " they not only drive him as spu- 

 rious, without food, from the nest ; but likewise, a circle of all ranks being assembled, cut 

 off his head before the gates, that he may be a warning to their children not to give them- 

 selves up for the future to idleness and effeminacy." — Theatr. Ins. 241. 



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