$26 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
wars are usually between nests of different species ; sometimes, however, 
those of the same, when so near as to interfere with and incommode each 
other, have their battles ; and with respect to ants of one species, Myrmica 
rubra, combats occasionally take place, contrary to the general habits of 
the tribe of ants, between those of the same nest. I shall give you some 
account of all these conflicts, beginning with the last. But I must first 
observe, that the only warriors amongst our ants are the neuters or 
workers ; the males and females being very peaceable creatures, and always 
glad to get out of harm’s way. 
The wars of the red ant (1. rubra) are usually between a small number 
of the citizens; and the object, according to Gould, is to get rid of a use. 
less member of the community (it does not argue much in favour of the 
humanity of this species if it be by sickness that this member is disabled), 
rather than any real civil contest. ‘The red colonies,” says this author, 
“are the only ones I could ever observe to feed upon their own species, 
You may frequently discern a party of from five or six to twenty sur- 
rounding one of their own kind, or even fraternity, and pulling it to pieces. 
The ant they attack is generally feeble, and of a languid complexion, occa- 
sioned, perhaps, by some disorder or other accident.”* I once saw one of 
these ants dragged out of the nest by another, without its head ; it was 
still alive, and could craw] about. A lively imagination might have fancied 
that this poor ant was a criminal, condemned by a court of justice to suffer 
the extreme sentence of the law. It was more probably, however, a 
champion that had been decapitated in an unequal combat ; unless we ad- 
mit Gould’s idea, and suppose it to have suffered because it was an un- 
profitable member of the community.? At another time I found three 
individuals that were fighting with great fury, chained together by their 
mandibles; one of these had lost two of the legs of one side, yet it appeared 
to walk well, and was as eager to attack and seize its opponents as if it was 
unhurt. This did not look like languor or sickness. 
The wars of ants that are not of the same species take place usually 
between those that differ in size; and the great endeavouring to oppress 
the small are nevertheless often outnumbered by them, and defeated, 
Their battles have long been celebrated ; and the date of them, as if it were 
an event of the first importance, has been formally recorded. Alineas 
Sylvius, after giving a very circumstantial account of one contested with 
great obstinacy by a great and small species on the trunk of a pear tree, 
ravely states, “This action was fought in the pontificate of Eugenius IV., 
in the presence of Nicholas Pistoriensis, an eminent lawyer, who related 
the whole history of the battle with the greatest fidelity!” A similar 
engagement between great and small ants is recorded by Olaus Magnus, 
in which the small ones being victorious are said to have buried the bodies 
of their own soldiers, but left those of their giant enemies a prey to the 
birds. This event happened previous to the expulsion of the tyrant 
Christiern II. from Sweden.® 
1 Gould, 104, 
2 One would think the writer of the account of ants in Mouffet had been witness 
to something similar. “If they see any one idle,” says he, “they not only drive 
him as spurious, without food, from the nest; but likewise, a circle of all ranks 
being assembled, cut off his head before the gates, that he may be a warning t0 
their children not to give themselves up for the future to idleness and efleminacy.’ 
—Theatr. Ins, 241. ' "S Ibid. 242. 
