170 SIB J. LUBBOCK ON ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS. 



As in the preceding case, they followed very leisurely. She ran 

 on ahead and worked at the spider for ten minutes ; when, as 

 none of her friends had arrived to her assistance, though they 

 were wandering about evidently in search of something, she 

 started back home again. In three quarters of a minute after 

 entering the nest she reappeared, this time with fifteen friends, 

 who came on somewhat more rapidly than the preceding batch, 

 though still but slowly. By degrees, however, they all came up, 

 and after most persevering efforts carried off the spider piecemeal. 

 On the 7th July I tried the same experiment with a soldier of 

 Pheidole megacepJiala. She pulled at the fly for no less than fifty 

 minutes, after which she went to the nest and brought five friends 

 exactly as the Atta had done. 



In the same way, one afternoon at 6.20 I presented a slave of 

 Polyergus with a dead fly pinned down. The result was quite 

 different. My ant pulled at the fly for twenty-five minutes, when, 

 as in the previous cases, she returned to the nest. There she re- 

 mained four or or five minutes, and then came out again alone, 

 returned to the fly, and again tried to carry it off. After working 

 fruitlessly for between twenty and twenty-five minutes, she again 

 went back to the nest, staying there four or five minutes, and then 

 returning by herself to the fly once more. I then went away for 

 an hour, but on my return found her still tugging at the fly by 

 herself. One hour later again I looked, with the same result. 

 Shortly afterwards another ant wandering about found the fly, 

 but obviously, as it seemed to me, by accident. 



Aug. 2. At 3 o'clock I put a dead fly pinned on to a bit of cork 

 before a Formica fusca, which w T as out hunting. She tried in vain 

 to carry it off, ran round and round, tugged in every direction, 

 and at length at ten minutes to four she returned to the nest ; 

 very soon after she reappeared preceded by one and followed by 

 two friends ; these, however, failed to discover the fly, and after 

 wandering about a little returned to the nest. She then set 

 again to work alone, and in about forty minutes succeeded in 

 cutting off the head of the fly, which she at once carried into the 

 nest. In a little while she came out again, this time accompanied 

 by five friends, which all found their way to the fly ; one of these, 

 having cut off the abdomen of the fly, took it into the nest, leaving 

 three of her companions to bring in the remainder of their prey. 



These experiments certainly seem to indicate the possession by 

 ants of something approaching to language. It is impossible to 



