. Annual report. Entomological Society of Ontario; Insect pests; Insects. 59 pratensis (in a wild state), there are probably from 400,000 to 500,000 ants, and in other- cases even these large numbers are exceeded. Yet they nob only recognise each other while living together, but even after living apart for a long period. Thus Sir John Lub'nock separated one of his colonies of F. fusca into two halves, and kept them entirely apart. At different times he put specimens from the one half into the other. At first they were always arnica'.ily received, but after some months' separation, they were oc
. Annual report. Entomological Society of Ontario; Insect pests; Insects. 59 pratensis (in a wild state), there are probably from 400,000 to 500,000 ants, and in other- cases even these large numbers are exceeded. Yet they nob only recognise each other while living together, but even after living apart for a long period. Thus Sir John Lub'nock separated one of his colonies of F. fusca into two halves, and kept them entirely apart. At different times he put specimens from the one half into the other. At first they were always arnica'.ily received, but after some months' separation, they were occasionally attacked, as if some of the ants, perhaps the young ones, did not know them. The mistake, however, was always reetitied in a short time. The last three ants were put back after a separation of a year and nine months, yet they were well received, and evidently recognised as friends. Formica jalracea is shown in Fig. 21. Further experiments were made by this accomplished observer,- with pupa2 taken from a nest and b fought up by stranger nurses. Even these young ants, when placed in the nesffrom which they had been taken as pupa2, were acknow- ledged as friends. But when they were put into the nest from which their nurses had been taken, they were always attacked. A still more extraordinary fact is, that ants will recognise the x-K. 21 claims of consanguinity even in young ants taken from their nest in the egg state, and brought up wholly by strangers. How this recognition of their friends is effected, is a mystery. Signs, passwords, the sense of smell, have all been suggested by naturalists as the solution of the problem, but none of these are fully satisfactory. Besides this power of recognising their friends, there is no doubt but that they have the power of communicating information to one another. Indeed, their acting in concert in karge numbers, for some special object—as in their warlike expeditions—is a proof of this, for without this faculty, such combinat
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1872
