164 ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



FRIENDSHIPS AND ENMITIES. 



THE capability of friendship, both social and individual, 

 is as much developed among ants as is that of war and 

 enmity. Also quite apart from the slave hunts, already 

 described, and undertaken for the attainment of a special 

 object, war and battle are the universal watchword of almost 

 all ant species, so that it may fairly be said that the ant is 

 the ant's worst enemy. Only some small and peaceful 

 species, such as the Botryomyrmex meridionalis, form an ex- 

 ception. As to the object of the continual and usually very 

 bloody wars, they seem often to be carried on just as.among 

 men, without any decided ground and from mere lust of 

 fighting and slaying. At other times they are struggles for 

 property and land, for soil and subsoil, plant lice, etc. ; at 

 other times again they are robberies of pupae which serve 

 for food, or of stored up provisions, as among the harvesting 

 ants, or the conquest of a new dwelling. Generally it may 

 be said without exaggeration that all the dwellers in the 

 same nest or the same colony are friends, all inhabitants of 

 strange or different nests or colonies are enemies ; and if 

 different species generally fight most frequently and eagerly, 

 yet often the most embittered battles occur between different 

 nests of the same species. If two hostile ants meet each 

 other, they generally fly from or avoid each other, but if 

 one of them is much larger and stronger or knows itself 

 to be supported by friends it will then attack the other. If 

 two friendly ants meet they either run silently past each 

 other, or else hold a conversation by means of their antennae. 

 Such a tapping of feelers also takes place when each is in 

 doubt whether it has to do with an enemy or a friend. If 

 the latter be the case and the friend finds that the abdomen 

 of the other is well filled, it begs, coaxing and stroking 

 with its feelers, for a little refreshment by the road, which 



