iv.] ABSENCE OF AFFECTION. 101 



together, after which the Indians cut off the ant's head, 

 which thus holds the lips of the wound together. He 

 asserts that he has often seen natives with wounds in 

 course of healing by the assistance of seven or eight 

 ants' heads ! x I have often observed that some of my 

 ants had the heads of others hanging on to their legs 

 for a considerable time, and as this must certainly 

 be very inconvenient, it seems remarkable that their 

 friends should not relieve them of such an awkward 

 encumbrance. 



As mentioned in the previous lecture, one of my 

 queen ants {Formica fusca) had a large mite on the 

 under side of her head. She could not remove it, and 

 not one of her companions, for more than three months, 

 performed this kind office for her. Being a queen, she 

 never left the nest, and I therefore had no opportunity 

 of helping her. Since then I have met with several 

 similar cases. Moreover, I have often put ants, which 

 had become smeared with a sticky substance, on the 

 boards close to my nests, and very rarely indeed did 

 their companions take any notice of, or seek to dis- 

 entangle them. 



Again, if an ant be fighting with one of another 

 species, her friends rarely come to her assistance. They 

 seem generally (unless a regular battle is taking place) 

 to take no interest in the matter, and do not even stop 

 to look on. Some species, indeed, never in such con- 

 tests appear to help one another ; and even when they 

 do so, as, for instance, in the genus Lasius, the truth 

 seems to be that several of them attack the same enemy, 



1 Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 2 S6r. torn. ii. p. 67. 



