ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 143 



animal, and when they have found it they plunge headlong 

 forward, and the whole column rushes on behind. The 

 smallest armies 1 saw consisted of several hundred individual:?, 

 but I have also seen some four times as large. They then 

 form columns which may be five metres long, and as much 

 as fifty centimetres wide. After a march, which often lasts 

 a full hour, the column arrives at the nest of the slave 

 species. The F. cunicularice, which are the strongest, offer 

 keen opposition but without much result. The Amazons 

 soon penetrate within the nest, to come out again a moment 

 later, while the assailed ants at the same time rush out in 

 masses. During the whole time attention is directed solely 

 to the larvae and pupae, which the Amazons steal while the 

 others try to save as many as possible. They know very 

 well that the Amazons cannot climb, so they fly with their 

 precious burdens to the surrounding bushes or plants, whereto 

 their enemies cannot follow them. They then pursue the 

 retreating robbers and try to take away from them as much 

 of their booty as possible. But the latter do not trouble 

 themselves much about them and hasten on home. On their 

 return they do not follow the shortest road, but exactly the 

 one by which they came, finding their way back by smell. 

 Arrived at their nest, they immediately hand over their 

 "booty to the slaves, and trouble themselves no more about 

 It. A few days afterwards the stolen pupoa or nymphae 

 emerge, without memory of their childhood, and immediately 

 and without compulsion take part in all tasks." 



They must gradually become accustomed to the war- 

 expeditions and slave-hunts of their masters, for, according 

 to Forel, they at first try to hold them back therefrom. 

 They gradually come to regard them as a matter of course, 

 and no longer oppose them, but give their masters a bad 

 reception if they come back empty handed. Espinas 

 ("Animal Societies," German ed., 1879, p. 362) confirms 

 from his own experience the observation already made by 

 Huber, " that Amazons which return empty-handed from an 

 expedition are badly received and pulled about by the dark 

 grey workers." Sometimes the slaves permit themselves 

 freedoms and impertinences towards their masters which 

 border on revolt and rebellion, but these are severely 

 punished if they pass a certain point. For a time an 

 Amazon will permit the importunity of its slave. But if it 



