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
I took three tapes, each about 2 feet 6 inches long,
and arranged them parallel to one another and about 6
inches apart. An end of each I attached to one of the
nests (_F. niger_), and at the other end I placed a
glass. In the glass at the end of one tape I placed a
considerable number (300 to 600) of larvæ. In the
second I put two or three larvæ only, in the third
none at all. The object of the last was to see whether
many ants would come to the glasses under such
circumstances by mere accident, and I may at once say
that scarcely any did so. I then took two ants, and
placed one of them to the glass with many larvæ, the
other to that with two or three. Each of them took a
larva and carried it to the nest, returning for
another, and so on. After each journey I put another
larva in the glass with only two or three larvæ, to
replace that which had been removed. Now, if several
ants came under the above circumstances as a mere
matter of accident, or accompanying one another by
chance, or if they simply saw the larvæ which were
being brought, and consequently concluded that they
might themselves find a larva in the same place, then
the numbers going to the two glasses ought to be
approximately equal. In each case the number of
journeys made by the ants would be nearly the same;
consequently, if it was a matter of scent, the two
glasses would be in the same position. It would be
impossible for an ant, seeing another in the act of
bringing a larva, to judge for itself whether there
were few or many left behind. On the other hand, if
the strangers were brought, then it would be curious
to see whether more were brought to the glass with
many larvæ than to that which only contained two or
three. I should also mention that every stranger was
imprisoned until the end of the experiment.
The results of these experiments were that during 47-1/2 hours the ants
which had access to a glass containing numerous larvæ brought 257
friends to their assistance; while during an interval 5-1/2 hours longer
those which visited the glass with only two or three larvæ brought only
82 friends; and, as already mentioned, no single ant came to the glass
which contained no larvæ. Now, as all the glasses were exposed to
similar conditions, and as the roads to the first two must, in the first
instance at all events, have been equally scented by the passage of ants
over them, these results look very conclusive as proving some power of
definite communication, not only that larvæ are to be found, but even
where the largest store is to be met with.
To this interesting account Sir John Lubbock adds,--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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