120 ON THE HABITS OF ANTS. [lect. 



and consequently concluded that they might themselves 

 also find larvae in the same place, then the numbers 

 going to the two glasses ought to be approximately 

 equal. In each case the number of journeys made by 

 the ants would be nearly the same ; consequently, if it 

 were a matter of smell, the two routes would be in the 

 same condition. It would be impossible for an ant, 

 seeing another in the act of bringing a larva, to judge for 

 herself whether there were few or many larvae left behind. 

 On the other hand, if the strangers were brought, then 

 it would be curious to see whether more were brought 

 to the glass with many larvse than to that which only 

 contained two or three. I should mention that every 

 stranger was imprisoned, until the end of the experiment. 

 I select a few of the results : — 



Exp. 1. Time occupied, one hour. The ant with 

 few larvae made 6 visits, and brought no friends. The 

 one with many larvae made 7, and brought 1 1 friends. 



Exp. 3. Time occupied, three hours. The ant with 

 few larvae made 24 journeys, and brought 5 friends. 

 The one with many larvae made 38 journeys, and brought 

 22 friends. 



Exp. 5. Time occupied, one hour. The ant with 

 few larvae made 10 journeys, and brought 3 friends. 

 The other made 5 journeys, and brought 16 friends. 



Exp. 9. Time occupied, one hour. The ant with 

 few larvae made 11 journeys, and brought 1 friend. 

 The one with many larvae made 15 journeys, and 

 brought 13 friends. 



Exp. 10. I now reversed the glasses, the same two 

 ants being under observation ; but the ant which in the 

 previous observation had few larvae to carry off now 



