178 ANTS AND ANT LIFE 



part of butchers, dividing it with their large mandibles into 

 small pieces which the workers carried into the nest. Cocci 

 and a species of beetle lived in their nests. Forel also 

 noticed a special class of soldiers among the Ph. pallid/da, 

 although they marched with the workers and mingled with 

 them. Both are incredibly brave and self-sacrificing. On 

 the other hand the soldiers never take any part in domestic 

 duties, but undertake the defence of the nest and its en- 

 trances against enemies from without. Forel kept a colony 

 of this species captive for a long while, and never saw the 

 soldiers working but only marching about. 



A battle, brought on by Forel, between the Pheidoles and 

 the turf-ants was at first begun very unwillingly on the part 

 of the former, for the latter were far more numerous as 

 well as stronger individually. A large number of Pheidoles 

 were killed and as a rule remained clinging to the legs of 

 their slayers after succumbing to a bite or a sting. But as 

 the soldiers of the Pheidoles gradually came up, the aspect of 

 affairs was altered. They carefully avoided being caught by 

 the legs, and snapped at the backs of their opponents with 

 their powerful mandibles, thus breaking the neck. If this 

 manoeuvre did not succeed and they were forced to fight 

 hand to hand they were frequently overcome. If a turf- 

 ant tried to penetrate into the nest, the soldier or guard at 

 the entrance met it with such powerful blows from its 

 mandibles that it lost its balance and was pulled into 

 the nest by the worker-ants. The latter withdrew more 

 and more from the contest, while the number of soldiers 

 steadily increased, and the decimated enemies were wholly 

 put to flight. 



The fight between one of the soldiers of the Pheidoles and 

 a Crematogaster scutellaris is very comic, the latter chiefly 

 relying on its poison. It lets its abdomen wander over the 

 head of the soldier, which struggles in vain to pull off one 

 of its limbs, and which becomes more and more infuriated 

 at the poison. 



There are soldiers also in the genus Colobopsis, employed 

 always in guarding the small holes of their carefully con- 

 cealed nests, and therefore hardly ever quitting it. In one of 

 these Forel found 450 workers, 65 fertile females, 45 males 

 and 60 soldiers ; in other nests there were comparatively 

 more of the latter. 



