168 SIR J. LUBBOCK ON ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS. 



communication possessed by ants. It is unquestionable that if 

 an ant or a bee discovers a store of food her comrades soon flock 

 to the treasures, although, as I have shown, this is by no means 

 always the case. But it may be argued that this fact taken alone 

 does not prove any power of communication at all. An ant observ- 

 ing a friend bringing food home, might infer, without being 

 told, that by accompanying the friend on the return journey she 

 might also participate in the good things. I have endeavoured 

 to meet this argument in my third paper (Linn. Journ. vol. xii. 

 p. 466) by showing that there was a marked difference in the 

 result, if on experimenting with two ants one had access to a large 

 treasure, the other only to a small one. 



It also occurred to me that some light would be thrown on the 

 question by compelling the ant who found the treasure to return 

 empty-handed. If she took nothing home and yet others re- 

 turned with her, this must be by some communication having 

 passed. It would be a case in which precept was better than 

 example. 



I selected therefore a specimen of Atta testaceo-pilosa, belonging 

 to a nest which I had brought back with me from Algeria. She 

 was out hunting about six feet from home, and I placed before 

 her a large dead bluebottle fly, which she at once began to drag 

 to the nest. I then pinned the fly to a piece of cork, in a small 

 box, so that no ant could see the fly until she had climbed up the 

 side of the box. The ant struggled, of course in vain, to move 

 the fly. She pulled first in one direction and then in another, 

 but, finding her efforts fruitless, she at length started off back to 

 the nest empty-handed. At this time there were no ants coming 

 out of the nest. Probably there were some few others out hunt- 

 ing, but for at least a quarter of an hour no ant had left the nest. 

 My ant entered the nest, but did not remain there ; in less than 

 a minute she emerged accompanied by seven friends. I never 

 saw so many come out of that nest together before. In her ex- 

 citement the first ant soon distanced her companions, who took 

 the matter with much sang froid, and had all the appearance of 

 having come out reluctantly, or as if they had been asleep and 

 were only half awake. The first ant ran on ahead, going straight 

 to the fly. The others followed slowly and with many meander- 

 in gs ; so slowly, indeed, that for twenty minutes the first ant was 

 alone at the fly, trying in every way to move it. Finding this still 

 impossible, she again returned to the nest, not chancing to meet 



