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Insects.
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of its making captives and slaves[1] of its less warlike neighbours! Three years ago I discovered some nests of this excavating species in a sandbank on Cove common, in Hampshire, and I have visited them every subsequent summer, but have never been so fortunate as to witness one of their pitched battles; in fact, until the present year I observed nothing peculiar in their habits. On the morning of my arrival I went directly to the nests, and observed that some movement
- ↑ "Slave Ants.—The most remarkable fact connected with the history of ants, is the propensity possessed by certain species to kidnap the workers of other species, and compel them to labour for the benefit of the community, thus using them completely as slaves; and, as far as we yet know, the kidnappers are red or pale-coloured ants, and the slaves, like the ill-treated natives of Africa, are of a jet black.
"The time for capturing slaves extends over a period of about ten weeks, and never commences until the male and female ants are about emerging from the pupa state, and thus the ruthless marauders never interfere with the continuation of the species: this instinct seems specially provided, for were the slave ants created for no other end than to fill the station of slavery to which they appear to be doomed, still even that office must fail were the attacks to be made on their nests before the winged myriads have departed, or are departing, charged with the duty of continuing their kind.
"When the red ants are about to sally forth on a marauding expedition, they send scouts to ascertain the exact position in which a colony of negroes may be found; these scouts having discovered the object of their search, return to the nest and report thensuccess. Shortly afterwards the army of red ants marches forth, headed by a vanguard, which is perpetually changing; the individuals which constitute it, when they have advanced a little before the main body, halting, falling into the rear, and being replaced by others: this vanguard consists of eight or ten ants only. When they have arrived near the negro colony, they disperse, wandering through the herbage and hunting about, as if aware of the propinquity of the object of their search, yet ignorant of its exact position. At last they discover the settlement, and the foremost of the invaders rushing impetuously to the attack, are met, grappled with, and frequently killed by the negroes on guard: the alarm is quickly communicated to the interior of the nest; the negroes sally forth by thousands, and the red ants rushing to the rescue, a desperate conflict ensues, which, however, always terminates in the defeat of the negroes, who retire to the inmost recesses of their habitation. Now follows the scene of pillage; the red ants, with their powerful mandibles, tear open the sides of the negro ant-hill, and rush into the heart of the citadel. In a few minutes each of the invaders emerges, carrying in its mouth the pupa of a worker negro, which it has obtained in spite of the vigilance and valour of its natural guardians. The red ants return in perfect order to their nest, bearing with them their living burdens. On reaching the nest the pupae appear to be treated precisely as their own, and the workers, when they emerge, perforin the various duties of the community with the greatest energy and apparent good will; they repair the nest, excavate passages, collect food, feed the larvae, take the pupa? into the sun-shine, and perform every office which the welfare of the colony seems to require; in fact, they conduct themselves entirely as if fulfilling their original destination."—Newman's 'Familiar Introduction to the Natural History of Insects,' p. 50.
