14 ALLEN, FORAY OF ANTS. 



II. Notice of a Foray of a Colony of Formica sanguinea 

 Litr. upon a Colony of a black species of Formica, for 

 the purpose of making slaves of the latter. 



By J. A. Allen. 



(Communicated Februai-y 20, 1865. ) 



Conflicts between colonies of Ants have been repeat- 

 edly witnessed, in various countries and by different obser- 

 vers, and the fact that som3 spacies attack other species for 

 the purpose of capturing and making- slaves of them, or of 

 their young, has been ascertained beyond question; ac- 

 counts of which may be found in most general entomologi- 

 cal works that treat upon the habits of insects. Such in- 

 stances, however, are rarely observed, and, as the writer 

 knows of no published account of any having been witnessed 

 in this couutry, he is induced to give a short account of a 

 case of this character that came under his notice the past 

 season at Springfield, Mass. 



On the 30th of July, about eight in the morning, 

 while walking near the edge of a thicket, in an old 

 pasture, my attention was attracted by a procession of ants, 

 considered by Mr. Uhler to be the Formica sanguinea 

 Latr.,^ passing to and fro in the grass. Stooping to exam- 

 ine them more closely, I noticed that all those going in one 

 direction were carrying in their mandibles larvge and fully 

 grown ants of another species. Following the train to its 

 end in one direction, and then in the other, I had no diffi- 

 culty in finding where the captives were deposited and 

 whence they were obtained. The formicaries of the two 

 colonies I found to be fully fifty yards apart. After watch- 

 ing them carefully for a time I left them, and returned in 

 half an hour with means for collecting ; when I found them 

 still as busily employed as at first. I then secui^ed many 

 specimens of both captors and captives j a part of the latter 

 were young, but able to run about, and quite dusky in color, 



* I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. P. R. Uhler, of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology, to whom I referred the specimens, for the identifica- 

 tion of this species, which appears to he widely distributed in both Europe 

 and North America. 



