Animal Intelligence: The International Scientific Series, Vol. XLIV.Romanes, George John
Science
Animal Intelligence: The International Scientific Series, Vol. XLIV.
Romanes, George John
Animal behavior; Animal intelligence
The armies of _E. vastator_ and _E. erratica_ move, as
far as I could learn, wholly under covered roads, the
ants constructing them gradually but rapidly as they
advance. The column of foragers pushes forward step by
step, under the protection of these covered passages,
through the thickets, and on reaching a rotting log,
or other promising hunting-ground, pour into the
crevices in search of booty. I have traced their
arcades, occasionally, for a distance of one or two
hundred yards; the grains of earth are taken from the
soil over which the column is passing, and are fitted
together without cement. It is this last-mentioned
feature that distinguishes them from the similar
covered roads made by termites, who use their
glutinous saliva to cement the grains together. The
blind Ecitons, working in numbers, build up
simultaneously the sides of their convex arcades, and
contrive, in a surprising manner, to approximate them
and fit in the key-stones without letting the loose
uncemented structure fall to pieces. There was a very
clear division of labour between the two classes of
neuters in these blind species. The large-headed
class, although not possessing monstrously lengthened
jaws like the worker-majors in _E. hamata_ and _E.
drepanophora_, are rigidly defined in structure from
the small-headed class, and act as soldiers, defending
the working community (like soldier termites) against
all comers. Whenever I made a breach in one of their
covered ways, all the ants underneath were set in
commotion, but the worker-minors remained behind to
repair the damage, whilst the large-heads issued forth
in a most menacing manner, rearing their heads and
snapping their jaws with an expression of the fiercest
rage and defiance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account