By Sir Jo An Lubbock, Bart. 



51 



observed, tliov have even lost the instinct of feeding, and will starve 

 in the midst of plenty, unless they have a slave to put food actually 

 into their mouth. I have repeated and confirmed Ruber's remark- 

 able experiments on this point, and have kept isolated specimens 

 alive and in health for months, by allowing* them a slave for an hour 

 or two every day, or every other day, to feed and to clean them. 



I confess however that I have not found the ants so ready to assist 

 one another in trouble as they have been described by previous 

 observers. 



It has been said, for instance, that if ants are accidentally buried, 

 their friends belonging to the same nest will come and dig them 

 out. I do not doubt that the facts occurred as stated ; but we must 

 remember that ants have a habit of burrowing in loose fresh soil. 

 I have therefore, with the view of testing the fact, repeatedly buried 

 ants under about a quarter-of-an-inch of soil close to which I have 

 placed honey, on which many of their friends have regaled them- 

 selves — but, though I have left them thus buried for hours together 

 I have never seen their friends take any steps for their rescue. On 

 the other hand I found that if I made ants intoxicated and placed 

 them in the neighbourhood of the nest, their friends would carry 

 them off home ; while, on the contrary strangers similarly treated 

 were not taken into the nest ; showing, I think, that they can not 

 only recognise their friends, but do so when these friends are not in 

 a condition to make any communication or to give any recognised 

 signal. Nay, not only do ants know all the other ants in the same 

 nest but they even recollect them after a considerable interval of 

 separation. I divided one of my nests of ants into two halves, which 

 were kept quite apart, and then from time to time put an ant from 

 one of these nests into the other. Now if a stranger from another 

 nest is thus introduced she is invariably attacked and driven out, or 

 sometimes killed. The old friends on the contrary were not molested. 

 The difference of treatment was the more marked because the ants 

 were marked with spots of paint, and the friends were soon cleaned 

 by their old companions. I have given the commencement of this 

 experiment in my Linnean Society's paper, and will now record the 

 conclusion. 



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