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 pupae 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 pupae of F. fusca, whereas they were much
terrified when they came across the pupae, 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 pupae.
One evening I visited another community of F. sanguinea, and found a
number of these ants entering their nest, carrying the dead bodies of
F. fusca (showing that it was not a migration) and numerous pupae. I
traced the returning file burthened with booty, for about forty yards,
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 over its
ravaged home.
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