Forel believes that when a _Solenopsis_, and one of the larger species of ants that it plagues, meet, the latter are unable to see it on account of its small size, so that, practically, it is invisible. This seems a strange doctrine, since the same ants can see smaller things; and yet, from their behaviour under such circumstances, M. Janet is inclined to think so too. It can hardly be that they shun combat, though the _Solenopses_, in spite of their small size, are able, even here, by virtue of their numbers, and being armed with stings, to meet their victims, as one may almost call them, upon equal terms. M. Janet, indeed, once saw so strong and warlike a species as the slave-making _Formica sanguinea_ killed by some half-dozen _Solenopses_, but he adds that on such occasions a considerable number of the latter were, generally, killed also. This, however, is not sufficient to abate the evil, so perhaps the molested species, finding that fighting is of no use, accustomed to see _Solenopses_ from their birth, recognising, too, as a part of their own atmosphere, the distinctive smell which they, no doubt, possess, accept them like some disagreeable part of their lives, and try to make the best of it. ----- Footnote 56: The American Naturalist, vol. 35, No. 419. Footnote 57: The American Naturalist, July, 1901. Footnote 58: Lubbock, Ants, Bees, and Wasps, pp. 78, 79. Footnote 59: Janet, Etudes sur les Fourmis. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XV Ant wonders—Leaves cut for mushroom-growing—How ants plant mushrooms—A nest in a mushroom-bed—“Psychic plasticity”—Two opinions—Ant stupidity—Unfair comparisons—The ant and the servant-maid—Mushroom-growing beetles—Choked by ambrosia—Intelligent uselessness—Automatic phraseology—A curious insect. ANTS, as everybody knows, have a special faculty for doing extraordinary things. Only a few of these have been mentioned in the last and preceding chapters, and only a few more can be touched upon in this. To do the subject anything like justice, a whole large book would be required, not a few chapters merely of a quite small one. What ants do, indeed, reminds me of the refrain, constantly repeated, of a certain old ballad lately brought to my notice, viz.— “Wonders, notable wonders! never the like was heard.”