50 ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 



soldiers have also been known to kill or try to wound each 

 other, as they lay on the ground after an embittered struggle. 



There is, moreover, a great difference in the behavior of 

 ants which have only had the antennae and eyes destroyed, 

 and those which have suffered serious brain-lesion. The 

 former show will and consciousness ; the latter are auto- 

 matic and their motions are reflex. 



Their large and well-constructed brain would, however, 

 be of small help or use to ants as, for instance, the dol- 

 phin, living in the water and with a clumsy body, obtains 

 little good from his large and well-developed brain if a 

 similarly well - developed and generally highly -organised 

 body were not joined to it. They have in their feelers or 

 antennae very long and flexible, consisting of a shaft and 

 nine or ten joints, and thickened into a knob at the end, 

 articulated with their heads by a very moveable hinge, and 

 bent at an angle an admirable organ for recognition and for 

 mutual comprehension, which they thoroughly know how to 

 employ. These are used for feeling with a continual rapid 

 motion and touch. Within the antenna runs a very strong 

 nerve, which takes origin at the base in a large ganglion. 

 This nerve appears to supply not only the sense of taste, 

 but also that of smell, so unusually developed in the ant. 

 The antennae are sensitive, even to the slightest movement. 

 If they are cut off the mutilated ant loses the ability of 

 finding its way, of distinguishing between friend and foe, 

 and even of finding food which is placed near it. It does 

 not even notice its much loved honey, unless its mouth acci- 

 dentally comes into contact with it, and will put its fore 

 feet into it, using these to feel with in default of its 

 antennae. It also tries to apply to it its whole head and the 

 so-called mandibular palpi, but with very poor results. Ants 

 whose feelers have been destroyed no longer trouble them- 

 selves about the building of their nests, the care of the 

 larvae, and so on. They generally remain quite quiet and 

 motionless, and hfeve as sad an appearance as men deprived 

 of their principal sense. 



The two fore legs are also very strong organs, and serve 

 in building nests and in throwing up earth. Ants, off which 

 Forel had cut both fore legs, made futile attempts at digging 

 and building ; they did not succeed in making a single re- 

 spectable furrow. They also soon became covered with earth 



