ANTS— MEMOEY. 
43 
were thus so certainly recognised by their kindred ants 
as friends had never, even in the state of an egg, been 
present in that division of the nest before. On this highly 
remarkable fact Sir John Lubbock says : — 
These observations seem to me conclusive as fir as they go, 
and they are very surprising. In my experiments of last year, 
though the results were similar, still the ants experimented 
with had been brought up in the nest, and were only removed 
after they had become pupae. It might therefore be argued 
that the ants, having nursed them as larvae, recognised them 
when they came to maturity ; and though this would certainly 
be in the highest degree improbable, it could not be said to be 
impossible. In the present case, however, the old ants had ab- 
solutely never seen the young ones until the moment when, 
some days after arriving at maturity, they were introduced into 
the nest ; and yet in all ten cases they were undoubtedly recog- 
nised as belonging to the community. 
It seems to me, therefore, to be established by these experi- 
ments that the recognition of ants is not personal and indi- 
vidual ; that their harmony is not due to the fact that each 
ant is individually acquainted with every other member of the 
community. 
At the same time, the fact that they recognise their friends 
even when intoxicated, and that they know the young born in 
their own nest even when they have been brought out of the 
chrysalis by strangers, seems to indicate that the recognition is 
not effected by /means of any sign or pass- word. 
We must, therefore, conclude with reference to this 
subject that the mode whereby recognition is undoubtedly 
effected is as yet wholly unintelligible ; and I have 
introduced these facts under the heading of memory only 
because this heading is not more inappropriate than any 
other that could be devised for their reception. 
It ought here to be added also that the pow r er of 
thus recognising members of their community is not con- 
fined by the limits of blood-relationship, for in an experi- 
ment made by Forel it was shown that Amazon ants 
recognised their own slaves almost instantaneously after 
an absence of four months. 
Under this heading I may also adduce the evidence as 
to enormous masses, or, as we might say, a whole nation 
of ants recognising each other as belonging to the same 
