and for such an upshot, indeed, upon the first occasion, Professor Wheeler was prepared. “For an instant,” he says, “I fully expected to see a fierce battle, but I had misjudged the _Leptothorax_ character. To my surprise the _Myrmicas_ on entering were received with a profusion of shampooing, and, though sadly crowding the occupants of the little chamber, they let themselves down comfortably, and appeared to experience all the sensuous satisfaction of a couple of _roués_ who have dropped into a Turkish bath for the night. Yet the little _Leptos_, though behaving in this friendly manner” (their conduct indeed was not more disinterested than upon other occasions), “seemed to have some dim desire to remove the _Myrmicas_ from their nest, for from time to time one was seen to pull with her mandibles at the fore leg or antenna of one of the intruders, as if to remind her that there are limits to polite hospitality.” Professor Wheeler adds that “this was the only act even approaching hostility witnessed between the two species. The _Myrmicas_ never showed the slightest irritation towards the _Leptos_, never seized them in their mandibles or even menaced them. They seemed rather to look upon the little creatures with gentle benevolence, much as human adults regard little children. They never passed their little guests without the antennal greeting, and the _Leptos_ shampooed their hosts with comical zeal.”[56] The continued breaking down and repair of the dividing wall is then described, with the conclusion that “in their natural environment the _Leptothoraxes_ would not be cramped for space, and would probably dig their cell where they would not so frequently be disturbed by their inquisitive hosts.”