ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 147 



One clay Forel saw some Amazons on the surface of a 

 nest of the F. fusca seeking and sounding in all directions, 

 without being able to find the entrance. At last one of 

 them found a very little hole, hardly as large as a pin's 

 head, through which the robbers penetrated. But since 

 owing to the smallness of the hole the invasion went on 

 slowly, the search was continued, and an entrance was 

 found further off, through which the Amazon army 

 gradually disappeared. All was quiet. About five minutes 

 later Forel saw a booty-laden column emerge from each 

 hole. Not a single ant was without a load. The two 

 columns united outside and retreated together. 



A marauding excursion of the Amazons against the F. 

 ritfibarbis, a sub-species of the F. fusca, or small black ants,, 

 took place as follows : The vanguard of the robber army 

 found that it had reached the neighborhood of the hostile 

 nest more quickly than it had expected ; for it halted sud- 

 denly and decidedly, and sent a number of messengers which 

 brought up the main body and the rearguard with incredible 

 speed. In less than thirty seconds the whole army had 

 closed up, and hurled itself in a mass on the dome of the 

 hostile nest. This was the more necessary as the rufibarbes 

 during the short halt had discovered the approach of the 

 enemy, and had utilised the time to cover the dome with defen- 

 ders. An indescribable struggle followed, but the superior 

 numbers of the Amazons overcame and they penetrated into 

 the nest, while the defenders poured by thousands out of 

 the same holes, with their larvae and pupa? in their jaws, 

 and escaped to the nearest plants and bushes, running over 

 the heaps of their assailants. These looked on the matter 

 as hopeless and began to retreat. But the rufibarbes, furious 

 at their proceedings, pursued them, and endeavored to get 

 away from them the few pupae they had obtained, by trying 

 to seize the Amazons' legs and to snatch away the pupae. 

 The Amazon lets its jaws slip slowly along the captive pupa 

 as far as the head of its opponent and pierces it, if it does not, 

 as generally happens, draw back. But it often manages to 

 seize the pupa at the instant at which the Amazon lets it go 

 and flies with it. This is managed yet more easily when a 

 comrade holds the robber by the legs, and compels it to 

 loose its prey in order to guard itself against its assailant. 

 Sometimes the robbers seize empty cocoons and carry them 



