172 SIR J. LUBBOCK ON ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS. 



boxes in which I had placed them. I could only distinguish one 

 of the marked ants, but there were no dead ants either in the 

 nests or boxes, except the two strangers. 



I carefully examined the box in the same way for several suc- 

 cessive mornings, but there was no dead ant. If there had been 

 I must have found the body, and I am sure therefore that these 

 ants were not attacked. 



Again, on the 31st Aug. I put two more of the ants which had 

 emerged from the pupae taken out of nest B, and nursed by ants 

 from that nest, into nest A at 10 a.m. At 10.30 they were quite 

 comfortable amongst the others. At 11 I looked again and they 

 seemed quite at home, as also at 11.30, after which I looked 

 every hour. The next morning I found them evidently quite at 

 home in the nest. 



On the 15th September I put three of the ants which had 

 emerged from the pupae taken out of nest A, and nursed by ants 

 from that nest, and put them into nest B at 1.30. They seemed 

 to make themselves quite at home. I looked again at 2.30, with 

 the same result. At 3.30 1 could only find two, the third having 

 no doubt been cleaned, but no ant was being attacked. At 5.30 

 they were no longer distinguishable, but if any one was being 

 attacked we must have seen it. The next morning they all 

 seemed quite peaceful, and there was no dead ant in the box. I 

 looked again on the 17th and 19th, but could not distinguish them. 

 As, however, there was no dead ant, they certainly had not been 

 killed. I then put in a stranger ; she was soon attacked and 

 killed — showing that they would not tolerate an ant whom they 

 did not recognize as in some way belonging to the community. 



These observations seem to me conclusive as far as they go, and 

 they are very surprising. In my experiments of last year, though 

 the results were similar, still the ants experimented with had 

 been brought up in the nest, and were only removed after they 

 had become pupae. It might therefore be argued that the ants 

 having nursed them as larvae, recognized them when they came 

 to maturity ; and though this would certainly be in the highest 

 degree improbable, it could not be said to be impossible. In 

 the present case, however, the old ants had absolutely never 

 seen the young ones until the moment when, some days after 

 arriving at maturity, they were introduced into the nest ; and 

 yet in all ten cases they were undoubtedly recognized as belong- 

 ing to the community. 



