168 ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 



the same nest never seize each other with this intent, -al- 

 though many species, as already mentioned, eat their own 

 larvse and pupae. They would rather die of hunger. Can- 

 nibals among men are not so tender-hearted. 



It is wonderful also to see the way in which friendly ants 

 and those which have been friendly recognise each 

 other after long separation, and distinguish between friends 

 and foes, however many .of them there may be, or even 

 when they belong to the same species. Darwin has given 

 much attention to this characteristic and has spoken of it in 

 several of his works. He several times brought ants of the 

 same species (F. rufa) from one ant hill to another, which, 

 as it seemed, was inhabited by tens of thousands of ants, 

 yet the strangers were at once recognised and killed. Even 

 the sprinkling of ants with assafoetida does not prevent them 

 from being recognised by their comrades, so that not smell, 

 but an unknown something, perhaps a sign or pass word, 

 must serve as a means of recognition. (See Darwin's 

 " Variations of Animals and Plants," 1868, ii. p. 333.) 



Huber (loc. cz.) remarks that ants from the same nest 

 recognised and caressed each other with their feelers after 

 four months' separation. If ants from two heaps of the 

 same species meet in battle, the ants of the same side will 

 seize each other in the general whirl, but recognise each 

 other as soon as their antennas have touched and mutually 

 apologise. 



Forel observed some distrust at first after a long separa- 

 tion, but it did not last long, and soon gave way to mutual 

 understanding and mutual help. He once put a single ant 

 from an old nest on the dome of a new, which he had made 

 about a month before as an offshoot of the old. It was at 

 once surrounded by more than fifty ants, which tapped it 

 on all sides in so pressing a manner that it did not know 

 which way to turn. But after the questioners, clearly satis- 

 fied with their investigation, had departed, others came up 

 which repeated the same manoeuvre, and so on without cessa- 

 tion. The strength of the poor victim of curiosity appeared 

 about to give way when suddenly an ant, touched with com- 

 passion, offered it its mandibles, and when the former 

 quickly seized them and rolled itself round, tried to carry it 

 inside the nest. But the crowds of the curious blocked up 

 the entrances and the worries and tappings of the poor 



