158 ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 



antennae drawn back, without going nearer. In this position 

 they beat off all assaults of the besieged, until they feel 

 themselves strong enough to advance to the attack. This 

 attack scarcely ever fails, and has for its chief object the 

 mastering of the entrances and outlets of the nest. A 

 special troop guards each opening, and only allows such of 

 the besieged to pass out as carry no pupas. This manoeuvre 

 gives rise to a number of comical and characteristic scenes. 

 By this means the sanguine ants in a few minutes manage 

 to have all the defenders out of the nests and the pupas left 

 behind. This is the case at least with the ruftbarbes, while 

 the rather less timid fuscoe try, even at the last moment 

 when it is useless, to stop up or barricade the entrances. 

 The sanguine ants do not indeed possess the terrible weapons 

 and the warlike impetuosity of the Amazons, but they are 

 stronger and larger. If afusca or a rufibarbis fights with a 

 sanguine ant for the possession of a pupa, it is generally 

 very soon overcome. While the main part of the army is 

 penetrating into the nest to steal the pupze, some divisions 

 pursue the fugitives, to take away from them the few pupae 

 which may chance to have been saved. They drive them 

 even out of the cricket-holes in which they have meanwhile 

 taken refuge. In short it is a razzia, or sweeping burglary, 

 as complete as can be imagined. In the retreat the robbers 

 in nowise hurry themselves, for they know that they are 

 threatened by no danger and no loss, and the complete empty- 

 ing of a large and distant nest often takes several clays in 

 accomplishing. The ants which have been so thoroughly 

 robbed scarcely ever return to their former abode. 



It must be admitted that a human army, robbing a foreign 

 town or fortress, could not behave better, more prudently, 

 nor with more regard to circumstances than do these 

 wonderful animals. 



As the only object of these expeditions is robbery, the 

 thieves do not, as a rule, trouble themselves about the 

 murder of their enemies, if these offer no active resistance. It 

 is only when the latter hang on their legs and will not let go 

 that they tear them in pieces with their jaws, for nothing 

 is more unpleasant to them than being held by the leg. 

 Their moderation, however, fails when they are merely con- 

 quering a strange nest, or are stealing such pupa3 as they use 

 for food, as of the Lasius niger or flavus ; in these cases they 



