58 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



casionally 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 (M. rubra) are usually between a 

 small number of the citizens ; and the object, according to 

 Gould, is to get rid of a useless 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 surrounding one of their 

 own kind, or even fraternity, and pulling it to pieces. The 

 ant they attack is generally feeble, and of a languid com- 

 plexion, occasioned, perhaps, by some disorder or other 

 accident." 1 I once saw one of these ants dragged out of the 

 nest by another, without its head ; it was still alive, and 

 could crawl 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 decapi- 

 tated in an unequal combat ; unless we admit Gould's idea, 

 and suppose it to have suffered because it was an unprofitable 

 member of the community. 2 At another time I found three 

 individuals that were fighting with great fury, chained to- 

 gether 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. 



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 to their children not to give themselves up for the future to idleness and 

 effeminacy." — Theatr. Ins. 241. 



