ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 177 



of rulida which he placed in the midst of a nest of the rufa 

 held possession of the dome and kept in check the countless 

 swarms of their enemies which did not venture to climb it. 

 Forel never saw them draw back in a fight. 



The Myrmica scabrinodis is not very warlike but is all the 

 more thievish. It steals its booty right out the nests of its 

 enemies, being better guarded against punishment than other 

 species by its hard, "leather-like coat of mail. Forel saw a 

 scabrinodis on the dome of a rufibarbis nest first pretend to 

 be dead, and then quickly steal off with the body of an 

 insect which a rufibarbis had brought up and had let go for 

 a moment. It is constantly at war with the turf ants and 

 generally keeps the upper hand. 



That the Attce, or harvesting ants, fight with each other 

 for the sake of plundering their several stores of provisions 

 has already been mentioned above. 



There are also some species which scarcely ever fight, 

 either because of their peaceable nature or because their 

 nests are too small for the array of hostile armies, such as 

 Myrmecina, Leptotkorax, Stenamma, etc. When they are 

 attacked they try to save themselves by flight, and protect 

 themselves by making nests which are as small as possible 

 in very concealed and little frequented places. 



The genus Pheidole,. lastly, demands very special mention, 

 for it is almost the only one among European ants which 

 has that special class of neuters usually called soldiers. In 

 Asia, Africa, and America this genus is much more widely 

 spread than in Europe. 



These soldiers, which are distinguished from their sisters 

 by an enormously large head and very powerful mandibles, 

 play just the same part in the ant state as soldiers do among 

 men ; that is, they do not work but only fight and defend 

 their working sisters. Lespes denies this so far as the 

 Pheidole megcicephala (large-headed ants) are concerned a 

 very small, light yellow Myrmica species living in Southern 

 France and Italy, and observed by him ; for he saw the 

 soldiers, which are much larger than the workers proper and 

 which have a head from six to ten times as big, working 

 just like their comrades. On the other hand, Heer (" The 

 House- Ants of Madeira," Zurich, 1852,) observed that the 

 soldiers of Pheidole or (Ecophthora pusilla (found in Spain) 

 when meat and dead insects were supplied as food acted the 



