74 SOCIAL HABITATIONS. 
Amazon ANT, and is tolerably common on the Continent. 
This insect is not furnished with jaws which are capable 
of performing the work that usually falls to the lot of the 
neuters ; but the same length and sharpness of the man- 
dibles which unfit the insect for work, render it eminently 
capable of warfare. When, therefore, a colony of the 
Amazon Ants is about to establish itself, the insects form 
themselves into an army, and set off on a slave-hunting 
expedition. 
There are at least two species of Ant which act as 
servants to the Amazon Ants, the one being named 
Formica fusca, and the other Formica cunicularia ; and 
to the nests of one or other of these insects the Amazons 
direct their march. 
As soon as they reach the nest, they penetrate into all 
its recesses, in spite of opposition, and search every corner 
for their spoil. This consists solely of the pupee which 
will afterwards be developed into neuters; and vast 
numbers of the unconscious young are carried off in the 
jaws of the conquerors. The rightful owners and relatives 
of the captured young cannot resist the enemy, as their 
shorter though more generally useful jaws are unable to 
contend with the long and sharply-pointed weapons of 
their foes. 
After the marauding army has returned, the living 
spoils are carefully deposited in the nest, where they are 
speedily hatched into perfect insects of the worker class, 
and immediately take on themselves the labours of the 
nest, just as they would have done in their own home. 
The Amazon Ant seems to be utterly incapable of work; 
and in one notable instance, when a number of them were 
confined in a glass-case, together with some pup, they 
were not only unable to rear the young, but could not 
even feed themselves, so that the greater number died 
