SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ON ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS. 



267 



10.30 I looked ; neither were being attacked. At 11 do., 12 do., 

 2 do., 4 do., and 6 do, 



Oct, 7. At 9.30 I put in two, and watched them carefully till 

 1. They joined the other ants and were not attacked. I also 

 put in a stranger from another nest. Her behaviour was quite 

 different. She kept away from the rest, running off at once in 

 evident fear, and kept wandering about, seeking to escape. At 

 10.30 she got out ; I put her back, but she soon escaped again. 

 I then put in another stranger. She was almost immediately 

 attacked. In the mean time the old friends were gradually cleaned. 

 At 1.30 they could scarcely be distinguished ; they seemed quite 

 at home, while the stranger was being dragged about. After 2 

 I could no longer distinguish them. They were, however, cer- 

 tainly not attacked. The stranger, on the contrary, was killed 

 and brought out of the nest. 



This case, therefore, entirely confirmed the preceding, in which 

 strangers were always attacked ; friends were amicably received, 

 even after a year of separation. 



Thus, therefore, in these experiments, as in those previously 

 recorded, the old acquaintances were evidently recognized. This 

 is clear, because they were never attacked ; while any ant from a 

 different nest, even of the same species, would be set on and 

 killed if she did not succeed in escaping from the nest. This 

 recognition of old friends seems to me very remarkable. In 

 one case the ants had not seen one another for more than a 

 year. 



Intelligence tested hy Experiments with Honey. 



To test their intelligence I made the following experiments : — 

 I suspended some honey over a nest of Lasiusjlavus at a height of 

 about i an inch, and accessible only by a paper bridge more than 10 

 feet long. Under the glass I then placed a small heap of earth. 

 The ants soon swarmed over the earth on to the glass, and began 

 feeding on the honey. I then removed a little of the earth, so that 

 there was an interval of about J of an inch between the glass and 

 the earth ; but, though the distance was so small, they would not 

 jump down, but preferred to go round by the long bridge. They 

 tried in vain to stretch up from the earth to the glass, which, 

 however, was just out of their reach, though they could touch 

 it with their antennae; but it did not occur to them to heap 

 the earth up a little, though if they had moved only half a dozen 



LINN JOUEN. — ZOOLOGY, YOL. XIY. 19 



