The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 06 (of 10)Sharp, David
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 06 (of 10)
Sharp, David
Animals
Forbes noticed that a species of this genus, that makes its paper-like nest
on the underside of bamboo-leaves produces a noise {156}by striking the
leaf with its head in a series of spasmodic taps. The same observer has
recorded a still more interesting fact in the case of another species of
this genus—a large brown ant—found in Sumatra. The individuals were "spread
over a space, perhaps a couple of yards in diameter, on the stem, leaves,
and branches of a great tree which had fallen, and not within sight of each
other; yet the tapping was set up at the same moment, continued exactly the
same space of time, and stopped at the same instant; after the lapse of a
few seconds all recommenced at the same instant. The interval was always of
about the same duration, though I did not time it; each ant did not,
however, beat synchronously with every other in the congeries nearest to
me; there were independent tappings, so that a sort of tune was played,
each congeries dotting out its own music, yet the beginnings and endings of
the musical parties were strictly synchronous."
[Illustration: Fig. 65—_Polyrhachis pandurus_, worker. Singapore.]
Mr. Peal has also recorded that an ant—the name is not mentioned, but it
may be presumed to be an Assamese species—makes a concerted noise loud
enough to be heard by a human being at twenty or thirty feet distance, the
sound being produced by each ant scraping the horny apex of the abdomen
three times in rapid succession on the dry, crisp leaves of which the nest
is usually composed. These records suggest that these foliage-ants keep up
a connection between the members of different nests somewhat after the same
fashion as do so many of the terrestrial Camponotides. Although the species
of Camponotides have no special organ for the production of sound in the
position in which one is found in Myrmicides and Ponerides, yet it is
probable that they are able to produce a sound by rubbing together other
parts of the abdomen.
{157}SUB-FAM. 2. DOLICHODERIDES.—_Hind body furnished with but one
constriction so that only a single scale or node is formed; Sting
rudimentary; the poison-sac without cushion._
[Illustration: Fig. 66—_Tapinoma erraticum_, worker. Britain. Upper side
and profile.]
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