57 



of far superior ancestors, maintaining a precarious existence as contemptible parasites of 

 their former slaves." 



Putting to one side, however, the slave-holding ants, we find in the different species 

 different conditions of life, curiously answering to the earlier stages of human progress. 

 Thus some species, such as Formica fusca, live principally by the chase, for, though they 

 feed partly on the honeydew of aphides, they have not domesticated these insects. They 

 resemble the lower races of men, who subsist mainly by hunting. They frequent woods 

 and wilds, their communities are small, they hunt singly, and their battles are single 

 combats, like those of the Homeric heroes. Formica flava represent a higher type of 

 social life. They show more skill in architecture, have domesticated certain species of 

 aphides, and may be compared to the pastoral stage of human progress — to the races 

 which live on the produce of their flocks and herds. Their communities are more numer- 

 ous, and they know how to act in combination. Lastly, the agricultural nations may be 

 compared with the harvesting ants. 



. Mental Character. 



Our present knowledge of the life history of ants is due not only to observations 

 made upon them in the field, but also to close study of captive communities. P. Huber 

 seems to have been one of the first to establish formicaries, and his account of his efforts 

 and success are very interesting. The idea, however, has been recently carried out to a 

 much greater extent, and with greater success, by Sir John Lubbock, the well-known 

 English naturalist, who, for several yeai-s past, has had from thirty to forty communities 

 under observation at one time, comprising some fifteen of the British species, and many of 



the foreign forms. Fig. 19 shows one of these formicaries. 

 His nests are formed of two plates of common window 

 ■ ■ ■■ h ,-ii, glass, about ten inches square, kept apart at a distance of 



3 



from one-tenth to one- quarter of an inch by wooden slips 



round the edges, leaving a small space at one corner for 

 =_-! an entrance. The space between the two panes of glass 



is filled with fine earth, and when the ants have taken 

 i.-.i:f :"-Vr:V:?z possession, they tunnel out the earth, and thus form their 

 chambers and galleries. These nests are placed on shelves, 

 ~* p^ swinging on a central support, one above another, and 

 some five or six inches apart. The nests can thus easily 



1 be turned round for inspection. Below all is a larger 



platform, with a deep groove round it filled with water, 



to prevent the ants wandering away from the apparatus. 

 Stand for nests— A, lower platform, It is easv to induce the ants to live in one of these 



1&£?££S? {£&* ne ^> if the ^ wa 7 » k*°wn. Sir John Lubbock says 



'• When I wished to start a new nest I dug one up and 

 brought home the ante, earth, etc., all together. I then put them over one of my artificial 

 nests, on one of the platforms surrounded by a moat of water. Gradually the outer earth 

 -dried up, while that between the two plates of glass, being protected from evaporation, 

 retained its moisture. Under these circumstances, the ants found it more suitable to 

 their requirements, and gradually deserted the drier mould outside, which I removed by 

 degrees." 



In these nests, when they had become accustomed to their new quarters, the insects 

 carried on their usual labours as freely as in their native haunts, and afforded special 

 facilities to the patient naturalist for observing the internal economy of ant life. And 

 he has not only studied them in communities, but has made careful observations on 

 individual ants, which have afforded many new and curious facts with regard to their 

 dispositions and habits. 



Let us look at one of these nests, say of Formica fusca (a species also found in 

 •Canada ), ar.d represented in Fig. 20, and note the domestic economy of the inmates. They 

 form an organized society of perhaps several hundred individuals, the head of which is 



