434 
Our Six-footed Rivals. 
[October, 
or gwasTintelligence, or some other of those unmeaning 
words which are so useful when we wish to shut our eyes 
to the truth. Yet that ants are really, for good or evil, a 
power in the earth, and that they seriously interfere with 
the cultivation and development of some of the most pro- 
ductive regions known, is an established faCt. A creature 
that can lay waste the crops of a province or sack the ware- 
houses of a town has claims upon the notice of the mer- 
chant, the political economist, and the statesman, as well 
as of the naturalist. 
Many observers have been struck with the curious mixture 
of analogies and contrasts presented by the Annulosa and the 
Vertebrata. These two classes form, beyond any doubt, the 
two leading subdivisions of the animal kingdom. To them 
nineteen-twentieths of the population of the dry land, both 
as regards individuals and species, will be found to belong, 
and even in the world of waters they are largely represented. 
At the head of the Vertebrata stands the order of the 
Primates, culminating in man. At the head of the Annulosa 
the corresponding place is taken by the Hymenopterous 
mseCts. It is very remarkable — as first pointed out, we be- 
lieve, by Mr. Darwin — that these two groups of animals 
made their appearance on the earth simultaneously. But 
along with this analogy we find a contrast. Man stands 
alone among the Primates as a socially organised being, 
possessing a civilisation. Among the Hymenoptera the lead 
is undoubtedly taken by the ants, which, like man, have a 
brain much more highly developed than that of the neigh- 
bouring inferior groups. But there is no one species of ant 
which enjoys a pre-eminence over its congeners anything at 
all approaching in its nature and extent to man’s superiority 
over the gorilla or the mias. What may be the cause of 
this contrast we know not. Perhaps it is merely due to the 
tendency of the Annulosa to branch out into a scarcely 
numerable host of forms, whilst the vertebrate structure, 
less plastic, lends itself more sparingly to variation. Per- 
haps, on the other hand, lower human or higher ape-forms 
than any now existing have been extirpated, as the tradi- 
tions of many ancient nations would seem to admit. 
At any rate, whilst the superiority of the ants as a group 
to the remaining Hymenoptera, to all other inseCts, and to 
the rest of the annulose “ sub-kingdom ” is undisputed, we 
are unable to decide which species of ant is elevated above 
the rest of the Formicide family. Possibly more extended 
and more systematic observations may settle this interesting 
question. According to our present knowledge the claims 
