Abstract
THE SHINING SLAVE-MAKER (POLYERGUS LUCIDUS).—The Rev. H. M'Cook is as fortunate as he is energetic in his studies of the American ants. At the December 1880, meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia he read a paper on the discovery at the foot of the Allegheny Mountains, near Altoona, of a nest of Polyergus lutidus, the American representative of the Legionary Ant of Huber (P. rufescens), an ant associated with that author's discovery of ant-nests, in which certain ants have associated with them, in a sort of slavery, ants of another species. The nest had four gates separated a few inches from each other; the chambers were placed one above the other, united by tubular galleries. In an inner ovoid chamber numbers of the ants, male and female, appeared; mingled with these in large numbers were workers in three forms—major, minor, and dwarf of Formica Schauffussi. A portion of the excavated nest was broken into, and on the next day but one was visited. None of the shining ants were at work, but the “slaves” were very busy cleaning out the galleries; a portion of the slaves were engaged in an extensive migration; a few were carrying their fellows, but for the most part the deportation was confined to the males and females of the shining ants. It was wonderful to see the large virgin-queens carried up the perpendicular face of the cutting for eighteen or twenty inches, and then for the distance of six feet over the ground and through the grass, and this in a few seconds over a minute. The shining ants are able to take a most wonderful grip. One of them had fallen under the displeasure of another, who held her firmly grasped by the middle thorax. Anxious to preserve the colony from unnecessary loss, Mr. M'Cook lifted the two out on the point of a quill toothpick, laid them on his hand, arid thrust the fine point of the quill between the jaws of the agressor, and so teased her that she released her fellow. The rescued ant instantly clasped the palm of his hand, threw her abdomen under her, and then, with back curved like that of an angry cat, sawed and tugged away at the skin until an abrasion was made. The other ant still clung fast by her mandibles only to the toothpick's point, her body stretched out into space, her limbs stretched outwards, except one hind leg, which was a little bent upward, and thus without any perceptible support except that which her jaws gave her upon the quill-point, she hung outstretched for several minutes. About a month after its discovery the nest was again visited; it was abundantly peopled; the winged forms of the shining ant were however gone. Having succeeded in colonising these ants Mr. M'Cook was able to confirm in many particulars the statements of Huber, Forel, and others, but he never happened to see the slaves feeding their masters. He noticed that they seemed to like to move towards both warmth and light, but he does not seem to have settled the question whether they would not prefer the warmth without the light. They would appear to be very clean in their ways and persons. Various experiments seemed to establish the fact that these slave-makers always keep a guard ready at once for any attack.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Biological Notes . Nature 23, 543–544 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/023543a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/023543a0