1 882.] Recent Literature. 805 



As regards the slave- keeping propensity of ants and its effect 

 upon the ant character, we have many fresh observations. During 

 more than four years' observations of a nest of Polyergus, Lub- 

 bock's specimens "certainly never fed themselves, and when the 

 community changed its nest, which they did several times, the 

 mistresses were carried from the one to the other by the slaves?" 

 With Ruber he does not doubt that specimens of Polyergus, if 

 kept by themselves in a box, would soon die of starvation, even 

 if supplied with food. " I have, however, kept isolated specimens 

 for three months, by giving them a slave for an hour or two a 

 day to clean and feed them ; under these circumstances they 

 remained in perfect health, while, but for the slaves, they would 

 have perished in two or three days. Excepting the slave-making 

 ants and some of the Myrmecophilous beetles above described, I 

 know no case in nature of an animal having lost the instinct of 

 feeding." In Poiyerg st ifescettSi the so-called workers, though 

 thus helpless and idle, are numerous, energetic and, in some 

 respects, even brilliant. In another slave-making ant, Strongyl- 

 ognathuSi the workers are much less numerous and so weak that 

 it is an unsolved problem how they continue to make slaves. 

 They make slaves of Tetra u rium ,< ^" > , which they carry off 

 as pupae. The extreme in the series of slave-making ants is An- 

 ergates, which differs from all other ants " in having no workers 

 at all," The male is wingless ; they and the females are accom- 

 panied and tended by / ///. The Anergates are 

 absolutely dependent upon their slaves, and cannot even feed 

 themselves. Lubbock thinks male and female Anergates make 

 their way into a nest of Tetramorium " and in some manner con- 

 trive to assassinate their queen." As regards the effect upon the 

 character of the ants, we quote as follows from our author : 



" At any rate, these four genera offer us every gradation from 

 lawless violence to contemptible parasitism. Formica sanguinea, 

 which may be assumed to have comparatively recently taken to 

 slave- making, has not as yet been materially affected. 



" Polyergus, on the contrary, already illustrates the lowering 

 tendency of slavery. They have lost their knowledge of art, 

 their natural affection for their young, and even their instinct of 

 feeding ! They are, however, bold and powerful marauders. 



" In Strongylognathus the enervating influence of slavery has 

 gone further, and told even on their bodily strength. They are 

 no longer able to capture their slaves in fair and open warfare. 

 Still they retain a semblance of authority, and when roused will 

 fight bravely, though in vain. 



" In Anergates, finally, we come to the last scene of this sad 

 history. We may safely conclude that in distant times their an- 

 cestors lived, as so many ants do now, partly by hunting, partly 

 on honey ; that by degrees they became bold marauders, and 

 gradually took to keeping slaves ; that for a time they maintained 



