APPARENT DEAFNESS OF ANTS. 223 
took the slightest notice of any sound which I was 
able to produce. I then took a large female of F. 
ligniperda, and tethered her on a board to a pin by a 
delicate silk thread about 6 inches in length. After 
wandering about for a while, she stood still, and I 
then tried her in the same way; but, like the other 
ants, she took no notice whatever of the sounds. 
It is of course possible, if not probable, that ants, 
even if deaf to sounds which we hear, may hear others 
to which we are deaf. 
Having failed, therefore, in hearing them or making 
them hear me, I endeavoured to ascertain whether they 
could hear one another. 
To ascertain then if possible whether ants have the 
power of summoning one another by sound, I tried the 
following experiments. I put out (Sept. 1874) on the 
board where one of my nests of Lasius flavus was 
usually fed, six small pillars of wood about an inch 
and a half high, and on one of them I put some 
honey. A number of ants were wandering about on 
the board itself in search of food, and the nest itself 
was immediately above, and about 12 inches from, the 
board. I then put three ants to the honey, and when 
each had sufficiently fed I imprisoned her and put 
another; thus always keeping three ants at the 
honey, but not allowing them to go home. If then 
they could summon their friends by sound, there 
ought soon to be many ants at the honey. The results 
were as follow: 
