276 SEE JOHN LrBBOCK 01? ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS. 



The next morning again, when I got up, I found five ants 

 round the bottle containing the strangers, none near the friends. 

 As in the former case, one of the ants had seized a stranger by 

 the leg, and was trying to drag her through the muslin. All day 

 the ants clustered round the bottle, and bit perseveringly, though 

 not systematically, at the musliu. The same thing happened all 

 the following day. 



These observations seemed to me sufficiently to test the be- 

 haviour of the ants belonging to this nest under these circum- 

 stances. I thought it desirable, however, to try also other com- 

 munities. I selected, therefore, two other nests. One was a 

 community of Folyergus rufescens with numerous slaves. Close 

 to where the ants of this nest came to feed, I placed as before 

 two small bottles, closed in the same way— one containing two 

 slave ants from the nest, the other two strangers. These ants, 

 however, behaved quite unlike the preceding, for they took no 

 notice of either bottle, and showed no sign either of affection 

 or hatred. One is almost tempted to surmise that the war-like 

 spirit of these ants was broken by slavery. 



The other nest which I tried, also a community of Formica fusea, 

 behaved exactly like the first. They took no notice of the bottle 

 containing the friends, but clustered round and eventually forced 

 their way into that containing the strangers. 



It seems, therefore, that in these curious insects hatred is a 

 stronger passion than afi"ection. 



Experiments showing the importance of the Sense of Smell to 

 certain Ants. 



In order further to test how far ants are guided by sight and how 

 much by scent, I tried the following experiment with Lasius niger. 

 Some food was put out at the point a on a board measuring 20 

 inches by 12 (fig. 1 ), and so arranged that the ants in going straight 

 to it from the nest woul d reach Fig. 1 . 



the board at the point h, and 

 after passing under a paper 

 tunnel, c, would proceed be- 

 tween five pairs of wooden 

 bricks, each 3 inches in length 

 and If in height. When 

 they got to know their way, 

 they went quite straight along 

 the line d e to a. The board was then twisted as shown in 

 fig. 2. The bricks and tunnel being arranged exactly in the 

 same direction as before, but the board having been moved, 



a 



