ANTS— COMMUNICATION. 
49 
insects. That insects with such highly organised social 
habits, and depending so greatly on the principles of co- 
operation, should manifest emotions or instincts of an inci- 
piently altruistic character, is no more than we should 
antecedently expect on the general principle of survival 
of the fittest. Our only surprise should be that these 
emotions, or instincts, should appear to be so feebly de- 
veloped in some species of ants, and, as we shall subse- 
quently see, also of bees. But it may be worth while in 
this connection to point out that the valuable observation 
of Mr. Belt above quoted refers to the species of ant which, 
as we shall subsequently find, presents the most highly 
organised instincts of co-operation that are to be met with 
among ants, and therefore the greatest dependence of the 
welfare of the individual on that of the community. And 
the same remark is applicable to our native species, F. san- 
guined , which the Itev. W\ W. F. White has repeatedly 
seen rescuing buried companions very much in the manner 
described by Mr. Belt; and he does not appear to be ac- 
quainted with Mr. Belt’s observations. He figures one 
case in which he saw three ants co-operating to dig out 
a buried comrade . 1 
Powers of Communication . 
Huber, Kirby and Spence, Dujardin, Burmeister, 
Franklin, and other observers have all expressed them- 
selves as more or less strongly of the opinion that members 
of the same community of ants, and other social Hymen- 
optera, are able to communicate information to one 
another by some system of language or signs. The facts, 
however, on which their opinion rests have not been stated 
with that degree of caution and detail which the accept- 
ance of the conclusion requires. Thus, Kirby and Spence 
give only one instance of supposed communication between 
ants , 2 and even this one is inconclusive, as the facts de- 
scribed admit of being explained by supposing that the 
ants simply tracked one another by scent; while Huber 
1 See Leisure Hour, 1880, p. 390. 
2 Introduction to Entomology , vol. ii. p. 624. 
