The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th EditionDarwin, Charles
History
The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition
Darwin, Charles
Evolution (Biology); Natural selection
At the same time I laid on the same place a small parcel of the pupæ of
another species, F. flava, with a few of these little yellow ants still
clinging to the fragments of their nest. This species is sometimes,
though rarely, made into slaves, as has been described by Mr. Smith.
Although so small a species, it is very courageous, and I have seen it
ferociously attack other ants. In one instance I found to my surprise
an independent community of F. flava under a stone beneath a nest of
the slave-making F. sanguinea; and when I had accidentally disturbed
both nests, the little ants attacked their big neighbours with
surprising courage. Now I was curious to ascertain whether F. sanguinea
could distinguish the pupæ of F. fusca, which they habitually make into
slaves, from those of the little and furious F. flava, which they
rarely capture, and it was evident that they did at once distinguish
them; for we have seen that they eagerly and instantly seized the pupæ
of F. fusca, whereas they were much terrified when they came across the
pupæ, or even the earth from the nest, of F. flava, and quickly ran
away; but in about a quarter of an hour, shortly after all the little
yellow ants had crawled away, they took heart and carried off the pupæ.
One evening I visited another community of F. sanguinea, and found a
number of these ants returning home and entering their nests, carrying
the dead bodies of F. fusca (showing that it was not a migration) and
numerous pupæ. I traced a long file of ants burthened with booty, for
about forty yards back, to a very thick clump of heath, whence I saw
the last individual of F. sanguinea emerge, carrying a pupa; but I was
not able to find the desolated nest in the thick heath. The nest,
however, must have been close at hand, for two or three individuals of
F. fusca were rushing about in the greatest agitation, and one was
perched motionless with its own pupa in its mouth on the top of a spray
of heath, an image of despair over its ravaged home.
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