ANTS — CAMPONOTIDES 



147 



In many kinds of ants the full-grown individuals are known 

 to feed not only the larvae by disgorging food from their own 

 mouths into those of the little grubs, but also to feed one another. 

 This has been repeatedly observed, and Fovel made the fact the 

 subject of experiment in the case of Camponohis ligniperclus. 

 He took some specimens and shut them up without food for 

 several days, and thereafter supplied some of them with honey, 

 stained with Prussian blue ; being very hungry, they fed so 

 greedily on this that in a few hours their hind bodies were dis- 

 tended to three times their previous size. He then took one of 

 these gorged individuals and placed it amongst those that had 

 not been fed. The replete ant was at once explored by the 

 touches of the other ants and surrounded, and food was begged 

 from it. It responded to the demands by feeding copiously a 

 small specimen from its mouth : when this little one had received 

 a good supply, it in turn communicated some thereof to other 

 specimens, while the original well-fed one also supplied others, 

 and thus the food was speedily distributed. This habit of receiv- 

 ing and giving food is of the greatest importance in the life- 

 history of ants, and appears to be the basis of some of the 

 associations that, as we shall subsequently see, are formed with 

 ants by numerous other Insects. 



Oecophylla smaragdina, a common ant in Eastern Asia, forms 

 shelters on the leaves of trees by curling the edges of leaves 

 and joining them together. In doing this it makes use of an 

 expedient that would not be believed had it not been testified by 

 several competent and independent witnesses. The perfect ant 

 has no material with which 

 to fasten together the edges 

 it curls ; its larva, how- 

 ever, possesses glands that 

 secrete a supply of material 

 for it to form a cocoon 

 with, and the ants utilise 

 the larvae to effect their 

 purpose. Several of them 

 combine to hold the foliage in the desired position, and while 

 they do so, other ants come up, each one of which carries a 

 larva in its jaws, applies the mouth of the larva to the parts 

 where the cement is required, and makes it disgorge the sticky 



Fia. 60. — Oecophylla smaragdina. Worker 

 iising a larva for spiuuing. 



