16 ALLEN, FORAY OF ANTS. 



as already stated, were in various stages of maturity ; some 

 of the more advanced that I kept alive became completely 

 black during the day, and thus not to be distinguished from 

 the adult. 



F. sanguinea, as I observed in several cases, seized its 

 victim by the mandibles ; and weeks after, in looking over 

 the collection I had kept in alcohol, I found several pairs 

 with the mandibles still locked. Mr. F. Smith, in his cata- 

 logue of the Hymenoptera of the British Museum, part VI, 

 (Formicidse) p. 4, says: "This is the only species of the 

 genus Formica which plunders the nests of other species of 

 their young brood in the pupa state, which they bring up as 

 slaves to their own community. The species is not uncom- 

 mon in Hampshire (England), where it attacks the nests 

 of F. fusca and F. cunicularia ; in its nests have also been 

 observed numerous individuals of the yellow ant, jP. jiava ; 

 it does not raise nests similar to the wood-ant, but belongs 

 to the division of mining ants." In the case of the present 

 colony, its galleries were completely subterranean; there 

 were no surface indications of the existence of the formi- 

 cary. The site of the colony of the black species was indi- 

 cated by a slight mound of earth. The well known slave- 

 making ant, whose interesting habits have been so minutely 

 described by Huber, is the Polyergus rufescens Latr., found in 

 Central Europe. 



There had evidently occurred a battle between the two 

 colonies of ants under consideration, as I noticed that some 

 of the F. sanguinea iirst examined were carrying mutilated 

 individuals of their own species. The conflict was proba- 

 bly a short one, F. sanguinea so much outnumbering the 

 other species. The latter appeared, when I saw them, to 

 have resigned themselves to their fate, offering not the least 

 resistance ; and when liberated from the firm grasp of their 

 captors, they only very spiritlessly sought at once to hide 

 under the first fragment of grass or other thing that would 

 conceal them, under which they quietly remained. The 

 number of F. sanguinea engaged in the foray I estimated at 

 nearly two thousand, there being in the procession as many 

 as eight or nine hundred at' once, while at the same time 

 there were probably as many or more in the two formicaries. 



