. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. HYMENOPTERA CHAP. by striking the leaf with its head in a series of spasmodic taps. The same observer has recorded a still more interesting fact in the case of another species of this genus—a large brown ant- found in Sumatra. The individuals were " spread over a space, perhaps a couple of yards in diameter, on the stem, leaves, and branches of a great tree which had fallen, and not within sight of each other ; yet the set up at the same moment, con- tinued exactly the same space of time, and stopped at the same in- stant ; after the l
. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. HYMENOPTERA CHAP. by striking the leaf with its head in a series of spasmodic taps. The same observer has recorded a still more interesting fact in the case of another species of this genus—a large brown ant- found in Sumatra. The individuals were " spread over a space, perhaps a couple of yards in diameter, on the stem, leaves, and branches of a great tree which had fallen, and not within sight of each other ; yet the set up at the same moment, con- tinued exactly the same space of time, and stopped at the same in- stant ; after the lapse of a few seconds all recommenced at the same instant. The interval was always of about the same duration, though I did not time it; each ant did not, however, beat synchronously with every other in the congeries nearest to me ; there were independent tappings, so that a sort of tune was played, each congeries dotting out its own music, yet the beginnings and endings of the musical parties were strictly ; Mr. Peal has also recorded that an ant—the name is not mentioned, but it may be presumed to be an Assamese species- makes a concerted noise loud enough to be heard by a human being at twenty or thirty feet distance, the sound being produced by each ant scraping the horny apex of the abdomen three times in rapid succession on the dry, crisp leaves of which the nest is usually composed. These records suggest that these foliage-ants keep up a connection between the members of different nests somewhat after the same fashion as do so many of the terrestrial Camponotides. Although the species of Cainponotides have no special organ for the production of sound in the position in which one is found in Mvrmicides and Ponerides, yet it is probable that v > t/ x they are able to produce a sound by rubbing together other parts . of the FIG. 65.— Ph/,-/u:i- JHI,nl ii worker. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned pag
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Keywords: ., bookauthorha, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
