ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 161 



whole species is retrograde or undergoing retrogression, a 

 condition easily comprehensible on the principles of 

 evolution. 



Forel bestows a somewhat better character on the S. 

 Hubert. He saw an army of these overthrow a colony of 

 the Tetramorium with skill and courage, without the help of 

 their slaves. In this case, as with the Amazons, their 

 pointed mandibles spread great terror among their opponents, 

 although they were rarely able to pierce their heads. Many 

 of them remained on the field of battle, the Tetramoria 

 seizing them on the breast with their jaws, and dismembering 

 them. This species also does no work, and lets itself be fed 

 by its slaves ; only in case of need does it condescend to 

 feed itself. 



Before we quit the interesting question of slavery let us 

 throw a rapid glance on the slave species themselves, or at 

 least on the chief of them. 



The most remarkable of these is the F. rufibarbis or cuni- 

 cularia, a sub-species of the F. fusca or small black ant, 

 the species which yields most of the slaves. It manifests 

 remarkable bravery and skill in its battles, whether with slave 

 hunters or with other species. It is able to chase the rather 

 clumsy F. rufa, or hill ant, away from its pupse, even when 

 the enemy is superior in numbers. If a rufa catch hold of 

 its leg, it either kills or disables it, and if the rufa let go, it 

 runs away. A badly guarded pupa is at once seen and 

 snatched away, and if a rufa lets go its pupa for an instant, 

 so as to get a better hold, it is at once carried off. Let a single 

 rufibarbis, says Forel, be put in the midst of rufce or pratenses, 

 covering the dome of a nest, and it will almost always be 

 found to escape scot free. It also catches flies at its 

 breeding time. On the other hand it does not understand, 

 as do other species, how to introduce order and tactics into 

 its united movements, whereas the individually less skilful 

 rufce always fight in close columns and sacrifice themselves 

 without hesitation to the common good. A small troop 

 never divides off to make a side attack, and no single ant 

 goes out by itself as an adventurer. It is also unable to 

 pursue a flying foe. 



Perty (toe. cit., p. 334) says that he once, at Berne, beat 

 with his umbrella a hazel-nut bush on which countless 

 F. rufcB were busy, and then picked up a few of them. A 



