Note 6 — CHAP. II. OF THE EGGS, LARVÆ, AND PUPÆ OF ANTS.

As these insects evince so much attachment to the charge committed to their care, I was desirous of ascertaining if they would show equal concern for the offspring of another species. For this purpose, I visited a nest inhabited by the little black ant, where there were only larvæ, and removed a few to a nest occupied by the yellow ant, containing only pupæ. Here they lay for a time unnoticed. At length, one or two of the ants took them up, with the intention of carrying them away, when another, who appeared stationed as centinel, ran violently against and overthrew them, thus occasioning them to relinquish their hold: this part of the nest was at length deserted, the larvæ were left where first deposited, and the centinel retired. At this time not a single ant was within view. In about five minutes a little troop sallied forth, and, as if acting under some general impulse, carried off their unwelcome visitors to one of their underground apartments. Visiting this nest from day to day, I never afterwards saw these larvæ, and therefore, conclude they had been set apart, where, from neglect, they had perished. Had the larvæ been brought up in common with those of their own family, I must have known it; for, as I before said, the nest contained pupæ only. In an after-visit to this nest, I reversed the experiment, by carrying away some of the pupæ, and placing them in the nest from which I had before taken the larvæ. This done, a similar scene took place. The pupæ were at first regarded with indifference. Some of the inhabitants then attempted a removal, to which there was, for a time, strong opposition. In a few minutes, however, they were carried off to the subterranean chambers. In these experiments, there was this slight difference: in the former instance, the ants retired, as it would seem, to deliberate; in the latter, they remained the whole time within sight, a little distance from the pupæ. Had the larvæ or pupæ been suffered to remain where first placed, this would have greatly embarrassed the ants in their daily operations, this being the spot where they were in the habit of bringing their young to enjoy the sun’s warmth. But why they should take them under-ground, in preference to carrying and depositing them beyond the nest, is a question I can only answer by supposing they there conveyed them to insure their certain destruction, and thus prevent further molestation.—T.