| → Another species, Formica 1860 1861 1866 1869 1872 |
| Formica 1859 |
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| → (F. fusca) are 1860 1861 1866 1869 1872 |
| are 1859 |
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They are incapable of making their own nests, or of feeding their own larvæ. When the old nest is found inconvenient, and they have to migrate, it is the slaves which determine the migration, and actually carry their masters in their jaws. So utterly helpless are the masters, that when Huber shut up thirty of them without a slave, but with plenty of the food which they like best, and with their
and pupæ to stimulate them to work, they did nothing; they could not even feed themselves, and many perished of hunger. Huber then introduced a single slave (F. fusca), and she instantly set to work, fed and saved the survivors; made some cells and tended the larvæ, and put all to rights. What can be more extraordinary than these well-ascertained facts? If we had not known of any other slave-making ant, it would have been hopeless to
how so wonderful an instinct could have been perfected. |
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→Another species, Formica
was likewise first discovered by P. Huber to be a slave-making ant. This species is found in the southern parts of England, and its habits have been attended to by Mr. F. Smith, of the British Museum, to whom I am much indebted for information on this and other subjects. Although fully trusting to the statements of Huber and Mr. Smith, I tried to approach the subject in a sceptical frame of mind, as any one may well be excused for doubting the
of so extraordinary
an instinct as that of making slaves.
I will give the observations which I
made, in some little detail. I opened fourteen nests of F. sanguinea, and found a few slaves in all. Males and fertile females of the
→(F. fusca) are
found only in their own proper communities, and have never been observed in the nests of F. sanguinea. The slaves are black and not above half the size of their
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