ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 45 



out, between the widest limits. The bloodthirsty and 

 murderous tiger-beetle, Cicindela, as is related by the same 

 author, bears himself very differently when he chases the 

 strong harvesting ants, and the small and weak Formica 

 erratica. He seizes and swallows the latter without 

 delay, while he is more than half afraid of the former. " I 

 have seen this beetle lying in wait near a train of 

 structor or barbara ants, watching until some individual 

 separated a little from the main body, when it would rush 

 forward and make a snap at it, retiring again as quickly as 

 it came. If the tiger-beetle fails to seize its prey exactly 

 behind the head it will let it go again, and two or three 

 ants are often thus cruelly mutilated before a single one is 

 carried off. No doubt the beetle has learned that if once 

 this ant clasps its mandibles upon either antenna? or legs, 

 nothing, not even death itself, will make it release its hold. 

 It therefore tries to pin the ant in such a way that it cannot 

 use its formidable jaws. Perhaps the habit of forming 

 long compact trains may have been acquired by the ants 

 partly with a view to guarding against attacks of this kind. 

 The colonies of the little F. erratica, on the other hand, 

 apparently have to trust to their habit of working under the 

 covered ways which they construct, as well as to their 

 activity and great numbers, for their preservation " (p. 1 64). 

 The most timid ant, according to Forel, of the species 

 Camponotus is the Camponotus marginatus, which scarcely 

 ventures to defend its nest, while the Camponotus pubescens 

 is the strongest and bravest. The largest of the workers 

 of the latter species compete with the famous Amazon, 

 Polyergus rufescens. The harvesting ants also are not able 

 to withstand the stronger Camponotus. Forel destroyed the 

 partition-wall which divided a nest of the Camponotus 

 (etkiops from one of the Atta structor. The latter were so 

 terrified that they fell a prey in the shortest time to the 

 nippers of their opponents without serious resistance. The 

 bravest species of ants are the above-mentioned Amazons 

 and the bloodred ants, Form, sanguinea, of whose battles and 

 robbery-excursions or slave hunts, exact details will be 

 given later. Most of the species of the germs Myrmica, to 

 which belong all the true harvesting ante, are dangerous 

 and brave, while the comparative intelligence of the above- 

 named bloodred ants appears to rise above that of all 



