in.] SLAVERY AMONG ANTS. 77 , 



little Solenopsis, therefore, are quite safe, and, as it 

 appears, make incursions into the nurseries of the larger 

 ant, and carry off the larvae as food. It is as if we had 

 small dwarfs, about eighteen inches to two feet long, 

 harbouring in the walls of our houses, and every now 

 and then carrying off some of our children into their 

 horrid dens. 



Most ants, indeed, will carry off the larvae and pupae 

 of others if they get a chance ; and this explains, or at 

 any rate throws some light upon, that most remarkable 

 phenomenon, the existence of slavery among ants. If 

 you place a number of larvae or pupae in front of a nest 

 of the horse ant, for instance, they are soon carried off ; 

 and those which are not immediately required for food 

 remain alive for some days, though I have never been 

 able to satisfy myself whether they are fed by their 

 captors. Both the horse ant and the slave ant (F.fusca) 

 are abundant species, and it must not unfrequently occur 

 that the former, being pressed for food, attack the latter 

 and carry off some of their larvae and pupae. Under 

 these circumstances, it occasionally happens that the 

 pupae come to maturity in the nests of the horse ant ; 

 and nests are sometimes, though rarely, found, in which, 

 with the legitimate owners, there are a few F. fuscas. 

 With the horse ant this is, however, a very rare and 

 exceptional phenomenon; but, with an allied species, 

 F. sanguinea, a species which exists in our southern 

 counties and throughout Europe, it has become an estab- 

 lished habit. The F. sanguineas make periodical ex- 

 peditions, attack neighbouring nests of F. fusca, and 

 carry off the pupae. When the latter come to maturity, 

 they find themselves in a nest consisting partly of F. 



