96 EXPERIMENTS. 
laid her gently on her back close to the entrance into 
the nest. Soon an ant came up to the poor sufferer, 
crossed antenne with her for a moment, then went 
quietly on to the syrup and began to feed. Afterwards 
three other ants did the same ; but none took any more 
notice of her. 
August 15.—I found at 1 P.M.a Myrmica ruginodis 
which, probably in a fight with another ant, had 
lost the terminal portion of both her antenne. She 
seemed to have lost her wits. I put her into her 
nest; but the others took no notice of her; and after 
wandering about a little, she retired into a solitary place, 
where she remained from 3 P.M. to 8 without moving. 
The following morning I looked for her at 5.30, and 
found her still at the same spot. She remained there 
till 9, when she came out. She remained out all day; 
and the following morning I found her dead. 
Indeed, I have often been surprised that in certain 
cases ants render one another so little assistance. The 
tenacity with which they retain their hold on an 
enemy they have once seized is well known. M. 
Mocquerys even assures us that the Indians of Brazil 
made use of this quality in the case of wounds ;,causing 
an ant to bite the two lips of the cut and thus bring 
them together, after which they snip off the ant’s head, 
which thus holds the lipstogether. He asserts that he 
has often seen natives with wounds in course of healing 
with the assistance of seven or eight ants’ heads!! 
4 Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 2 sér. tom. ii. p. 67. 
