162 ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 



specially large ant, " which by its whole behavior seemed as 

 though it recognised me as the disturber " rose threateningly 

 half erect,- and bit him in the finger. 



C. Shroder, of Elberfeld (" Zool. Gardens," 1867, p. 225) 

 tried to give a ruja as food to a so-called Aphis-lion*, a 

 strong robber insect larva. But the brave ant turned the 

 tables and so faced its terrible foe that the latter stayed 

 where it was. The same observer had the opportunity of 

 watching the remarkable behavior of an ant-slave of the 

 F. fusca imprisoned with some red-brown ants and three 

 myrmecophilous insects (Lomechusa strumosa). It alone did 

 more than all the rest put together, carried the larvce and 

 pupaa to a place of safety, looked after the nursing and 

 feeding, etc., and seldom left the nursery. 



The often-named F. pratensis is a sub-species of F. rufa, 

 and has colonies or nests containing from 5,000 to 500,000 

 individuals. Forel observed among them a remarkable case 

 of nursing the sick on the occasion of a change of abode. 

 On the dome of the old nest an ant, which was clearly ill, 

 was walking with tottering steps, drooping feelers, ajid half- 

 closed jaws. Other ants approached it, licked it, and con- 

 templated it from various points of view, trying gently to 

 draw it within the nest. Suddenly up came one of the out- 

 goers, pushed the others aside and tried to lay hold of the 

 sick ant. It invited it to take hold of one of its mandibles, 

 but the invalid did not seem to understand. After prolonged 

 and futile trouble, the latter at last folded back its legs and 

 antennae, and let itself be taken up by its companion, which 

 carried it to the new nest. A quarter of an hour later 

 Forel saw the pair still on their road, recognising them by 

 the unusual way in which the sick ant was carried. He pulled 

 them apart with a straw, and the sick one hobbled on. But 

 its friend came back as soon as it had recovered from its 

 fright and once more carried off the invalid. 



A still more striking instance of care of the sick was 

 observed by Moggridge (loc. cit. p. 46), who saw an ant 

 (Atta) pull a sick comrade to a little pool, bathe it for 



* [In Adelung's dictionary it is stated that the Aphis-eater, which is 

 probably the same as the Aphis-lion, lives on the leaves of elms, 

 changes into a fly, and lays in wait for the Aphides. It was first 

 minutely described in 1770, and is ranked by Linnaeus among the 

 Hemerobit. TK.] 



