CHAPTER VI. 
RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS. 
It has been already shown that with ants, as with 
bees, while the utmost harmony reigns between those 
belonging to the same community, all others are 
enemies. I have already given ample proof that a strange 
ant is never tolerated in a community. This of course 
implies that all the bees or ants of a community have 
the power of recognising one another, a most surprising 
fact, when we consider the shortness of their life and 
their immense numbers. It is calculated that in a 
single hive there may be as many as 50,000 bees, and 
in the case of ants the numbers are stili greater. In 
the large communities of Formica pratensis it is 
probable that there may be as many as from 400,000 
to 500,000 ants, and in other cases even these large 
numbers are exceeded. 
If, however, astranger is put among the ants of 
another nest, she is at once attacked. On this point 
I have satisfied myself, as will be seen in the following 
pages, that the statements of Huber and others are 
perfectly correct. If, for instance, I introduced a 
stranger into one of my nests, say of Formica fusca or 
