· preface to the first ed ition. ome time ago we published an essay entitled “instinct and...
TRANSCRIPT
COMPARATIVE STUD IES
IN THE
Psycho logy o f Ants and o f
H igher Animals.
ERIC WASMANN , s. J .
P lus en im f ormicu larum et api cu larum opera
stupemus quam immem a corpora balaenarum ,
(S . Augusti ne, D e Ci t/i t, D e i , I. 22 , c . 24, n .
Authori zed Engl i sh Version o f the second German Edit ion .
En larged and revi sed by the Auth or.
ST . L OUIS , Mo . , AN D FRE IBURG , (BADE N ) ,Pub l ished b y B . HERD ER.
1905 .
L ON D ON AN D E D INBURGH : SAND S CO.
COP YRIG H T 1905
B Y
J OS E P H G UMME RS BA CH .
B EC KTO LD
PRINTING AND BOOK MFG . CO.
ST . LOUIS .MO.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST ED ITION.
OME time ago we publ ished an essay enti tled“ Inst inct and Intell igence in the Animal K ing
dom ,
‘ examining in detai l the concepts of instinct
and in telligence, with their appl ication to animals .
The discussion showed that intel ligence i s the spiritual
power o f abstract ion, and not the mere faculty o f
fo rming complex sense - representations ; for the laws
O f association in sense - perceptions belong to the sphereo f instinctive sens it ive l i fe and not to spir itual intel li
gence . Now , what modern animal psychology terms“ intel l igence of animals,
” i s nothing but inborn
instinct, rai sed to a higher l evel of per fection by the
individual ’ s sensuous experience . This , in its turn ,i s based on the very same laws Of association of sense
representations . Hence, there i s no reason for ascribing to animal s intelligence in the strict sense. Indeed ,our reasoning led us to take a further step , and weproved th at animals have no intel ligence at all . I f
they we re gifted with a spi ri tual power of abstraction ,i t would necessari ly be mani fested in their outward
actions , especially by the formation o f an arbitrary
phonetic or graphic language . Animal s , however,have no language ; hence , they have no intell igence .
Besides,we have shown in the same essay that
the mani festations of the psych ic l i fe , bo th o f higher
and of lower animal s,are to
'
be j udged according to
one and the some cri tical standard . The anatomicali i i
P reface to the First E di tion.
difference, that exi st s between the sense organs andthe nervous system of Arthropods on the one hand and
Of Vertebrates on the other, i s not a sufficient a priori
reason for ascribing intel l igence to the latter only anddenying i t to the former . The proo f of these assert ions forms the groundwork Of the present essay . We
shal l compare more at length the psychic l i fe Of the
most “intell igent” A rthropods, namely the ants, with
that of the higher Vertebrates and of man . From thi s
di scuss ion we shal l learn,whether the “miss ing l ink ,
”
with which modern evolutionists hope to bridge over
the chasm between the instinct of animals and the
spiritual soul of man , i s to be looked for i n ants or
in the higher Vertebrates , or whether, i n fact, i t exi sts
at all . Biologists wi ll be pleased to find that the
present essay contains many new observations on the
habits o f ants and their guests.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND ED IT ION .
HE numerous Observations of modern scient ists ,i l lustrating the relation s between the psychic l i fe
Of ants and o f higher animals , have been extensively
uti l ized in preparing thi s second edition. We have
paid due regard to the Observations and experiments,publ ished s ince 1897, on the different iat ion o f castes
in bee- hives . Besides,we have turned to account the
results Of a stat istical chart now completed,extending
over five years and compris ing all the colonies o f
Formica sanguinea in th e neighborhood of Exaten ,
Holland.This ant i s the most interest ing o f al l
European species . Thus we are abl e to publish many
new facts of interest in scient ific biology regarding
the slave - making habits of thi s ant,i ts metho ds o f
nest construct ion , i ts relat ionship to its guest
L ain ech i tsa, and the influence o f the latter in the
di fferentiat ion of castes in ant communit ies . Final ly,
two additional i l lu strat ions of L ornechnsa struni osa
and of it s larva have been added in the text .
TRANSLATOR ’
S PREFACE .
ASMANN’
S Instinct and Intell igence in the
Animal K ingdom ,
” which appeared recently in
an Engl i sh dress (Herder, St . Lou is , Mo ) , was so
favorably received, that it has been thought advisable
to follow it up w ith th is translat ion of another e ssay
by the same author. These two books supplementeach other
,as may be gathered from the frequent
cross references they contain,and
,more especially,
from the close relat ionship of the subj ects of which
they treat .
The be st recommendat ion of Wasmann ’ s biological
and psychologica l essays i s given in the following
l ines of W. M . Wheeler, Prof. of the University Of
Texas :1 “Wasmann in h is numerous writings has
undoubtedly done much,at least in Germariy, towards
the exposure of thi s pseudo - psychology (o f Brehm ,
Buechner and others ) and a more rat ional conception
o f ant behavior . His long famil iari ty with these
animals and their guests has given him a singularly
lucid insight into their act ivities . My own more
l imited observations on our North American species
l ead me to agree with him so far as the facts are con
cerned , and many Of the inferences which he has
drawn from them .
”As to hi s additional remark
I am constra ined to say, however , that I cannot adopt
1 )“The Compound and M ixed Nests o f American Ants," in
“American Natural i st,” Vol . XXV, 1901 , p . 808.
VI
Translator's P reface.
e ither his psychological definit ions or his psychogeneticreservations ,
”—we cal l the crit ic ’s attention to the endof the fourth chapter O f “Inst inct and Intel l igence in
the Animal K ingdom ,
”where Prof. Wheeler ’ s Objec
t ions have been answered .
In order to make the Engl ish translat ion more
valuable for North America, the author has k indlyadded a series of notes and Observations on the ant
fauna o f the United S tates . He has added , moreover ,the figures representing the North American form OfFormica sanguinea and that of its guest Xenodusa
cava. The present work , there fore , i s more than a
translat ion ; i t may be called a new edit ion, revised
and enlarged by Father Wasmann .
Canisins College, Buffalo, N . Y.
C ON T E N T S .
P reface to th e first ed i t ion
P reface to the second edi t ion
Translator’s p reface
INTRODUCT ION.
Some ancient and modern views Of th e p sych ic l ife o f
ants and Of h igh e r
CHAPTER 1.
COMMUNITY L IFE IN TH E ANIMAL K INGDOM.
I . A general view Of th e forms Of an imal commun ities.
D iff erent degrees o f commun ity l i fe in the an imal kingdom.
Commun it ies Of bee s and an ts com pared . An t state s, the
most per f ect an imal soc iet ies, both simple and complex .2 . The social foundations o f ant states
Polymo rph i sm, the o rgan i c f oundation o f an t societ ies.
Psych i c ties in ant colon ie s. It i s un tenable to iden t i f y the
human“state
” with that o f ants . “Automat ic” instincts
cannot suffic ien tly account f or the latter .
3. The commun ities Of h igher an iin als comp ared w iththose o f ants.
Mutual warn ing o f danger . Sent ine l s . Mutual chari ty .Nursing o f the sick . Co operat ion and di vi s ion o f labor.Common def en se .
“Fide l ity and obed ience” in an imal so'
cieties. Brief summary.
CHAPTER II.
WARFARE AND SLAVERY IN TH E ANIMAL K INGDOM .
I . Wars among h igher
Fables and stories o f wars between troops o f apes. The
latter use no weapon s or too l s,
Contents.
PAGE.
2 . Th e war- like exp editions Of the Amazon ant and th e
Formica sanguinea .
The i r tac tic s, the “human ity o f th e victors. The m i l itary
ski l l o f the Amazon ants ; the i r inab i l ity to f eed themselves.The mi l itary tact ics o f the sanguine slavemaker (Formi casanguinea) d i scus sed on psycho logical grounds.
3. The pretended automatism”in the psych ic l i fe of ants
The indiv idual s o f one and the same colony act d i ff eren tlyi n combat. Acqui red individual hab its. Persecuti on o f to lerated or even o f true gue sts. An ts tamable . Psych ic influenceo f the numbers o f a co lony on thei r courage in combat.Marked “
he ro i sm”o f ind ividual s. Martial sports ?
4. The slave -making instincts o f Formica sanguinea“Trad it ion and instruct ion” in insect communi ti e s . Experi
men ts made with “sel f - taught” an ts and bees. Seemingl yin te l l igent plastic ity o f the in stinct o f slavery in Formicasangu inea, both with regard to the number and to the spec ie so f i ts slave s. On the nature o f slavery i n ants . The correctexplanat ion i s ne ither anthrOpomorph ism nor mechan ic automat ism, but someth ing between the two .
5. Other wars and al l iances o f ants
Figh ts between ne ighboring colon ies. A l l ian ce s betweenhosti le co lon ies, and the i r psycho log ical explanation. Summary.
CHAPTER III.
ARCH ITECTURE IN TH E ANIMAL K INGDOM .
I . A general survey Of the architecture o f animals.
2 0 The l‘
l ests Of ants - t e e o o o o o o o o e ‘ o o o o o o o o o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ;
Various and arb itrary f orms Of thei r nests. Nests o f di f
f eren t an t species. Psycho log ical explanat ion Of th i s d i ff eren ce.
3. The nests Of Formica sanguineaVariety and plast i city in the ir forms . Variable numbe r o f
the nests of a colony. Period ic changes o f n ests ; di ff erentplaces o f residence i n d i ff eren t season s . These phenomena
psycho logical l y explained. Power o f adapt ing the con struet ion o f the i r nests to the surround ings, in order to securethem against hosti le inroads.
4. How do ants build thei r nests ?No rigi d system o f co - operat ion ; seem ingly inte l l igent self
determinat ion . Suitable con siderat ion o f the d i ff erent con
di tion s o f temperature and mo i sture . A rch itecture o f b i rdscompared with that o f ants ; with that o f mammal s, in par
ticular of beavers.
Contents.
PAGE .
5. Other purposes, for wh ich ants emp loy their arch itec
tural skil l .
Station s, roads, gal ler ies. stables f or aph ides , granaries ,ramparts, etc. Th e grave - yards o f ants in fiction and in
real ity.6. Is the building activity o f ants guided by
Ants using thei r larvae as spinn ing-whee l s. The“bridge
bui lding” o f ants according to W . Marshal l and Buechner.Experiments o f Lubbock and Bethe . My own experiments.
Resul ts summed up .
CHAPTER IV .
BREEDING AND NURS ING IN TH E ANIMAL K INGDOM .
I . A gene ral v iew Of the breeding instincts o f animalsBreeding and fam i l y l i f e in an imal s wi th re feren ce to the
p reservat ion o f species . Th i s relat ion sh ip psycho logi cal l yexplained. Breed in g in social in sects . The breed ing in st in cto f an ts dependen t on the laws o f organ i c development .
2 . Care o f the young among ants
Psych i c characteri st ic s o f the i r breed ing in stinct and o f i ts
d i ff eren t man i f estat ions . The di ff erent iat ion o f castes in
bees and an ts influen ced by education . Intermediate f ormsbetween f emales and workers in an ts, and the i r probableexplanat ion . Pseudogyn es and the i r relat ion to L omechusa.
A ttachment o f ants to the i r brood. Fond mother s” and“aunts . ”
3. Adop tion instincts in the animal kingdom .
The i r f requen t occu rren ce . Psycho logi ca l explan ation . Antsnursing L omechusa- larvae . D i fferent treatment o f theselarvae , both in normal sangu inea co lon ies and in such as
contain pseudogyn es. W . Marshal l and the nursing o f eggso f aph ides by ants ; “in te l l igent” f o resigh t o f the future ;compari son with the nursing o f L omechusa- larvae . Adopt ionin stincts in b irds and mammal s. Results summed up ; con
e lusion s.
The automati sm and the plasti city o f in st in ct both in antsand h igher an imal s reviewed . Man the on ly be ing in the
visible c reati on gi f ted with reason . Human ization o f an imal si s un scientific, and injurious to the moral order of human
society,
INTRODUCT ION.
VEN in ancient times, observers of animal l i fe
noticed that bodi ly s ize and psychic perfection
are not always in direct proport ion, but that the
reverse i s not unfrequently the case . Thus Aristotle 1
declared that keenness o f perception (rip ‘n'
is (Stan/0 6a ;
dxp ifiaav) was often more manifest in smal ler
than in larger animal s . Nor did i t escape the great
S tagirite, who was not only a logi cal thinker, but al so
a ski l fu l observer,that many animals o f low rank
in the zoological scale were endowed , in some way,with a higher psychic l i fe than the highest mammals ,so much so
,that i ts mani festat ions could be com
pared with human inst itut ions only . He mentions ,especial ly , ants and bees among those bloodless”
animal s which possess a more intel lectual soul than
many animals o f the other kind .
2 The same thought
was expressed by St. August ine , one o f the loftiest
Chri st ian minds , i n the fol lowing terms : We admire
the works o f the t iny ants and bees more than the
bulky forms Of whales .”3 And a d ist inguished modern
natural i st,Emil D uboi s—Reymond
,has acknowledged
1 )“H ist. 1. 9, c. 7 (Becker I ,
2)“D e partzb . 1. 2, c . 4 ( Becker I , Ari stot le’ s
d ivi sion o f an imal s into those with red blood and those wi th colorlessblood in real ity co inc ides w ith that o f Vertebrate s and Non -Vertebrates.He uses the term “Bloodles s An imal s” f or those wh i ch have no red
blood.
3)“De ci 'v. D ei , 1. 22, c. 24 , n . 5 (Mign e XLI ,
2 Introduction.
in the name of his colleagues :1 “With reverent ial awe
does he ( the natural i st) gaze at the microscopic specko f nervous substance
,which harbors the soul Of the
ant with its industry,it s inst incts o f architecture,
o rder,
fidel ity and courage .
Surely, i t was not without great reason thatscientific Observers o f recent t imes appl ied themselves
to the most careful and deta i led examination Of the
l i fe o f ants , especially since the publ ication Of PierreHuber ’ s classical “
Recherches sur les Moenrs dcs
Fourmis indigenes”
Very many interest ing
fact s Of great value for psychological research have
thus been furni shed . However , dabblers in popular
science, who viewed things from the s tandpoint Of“vulgar psychology, as Wundt termed it
,misinter
preted these facts in a very unscientific manner ; for
they tried to draw conclusions from them which led
to the humanizat ion of animal s,and denied the
existence Of any essential diff erence between the
psychi c faculti es o f man and brute . I t i s not so very
long since Ludwig Buechner endeavored to promote these ideas in h is “
Geistesleben der Tiere”
(Berl in, As i s general lv the case with such
shallow elaborat ions, Buechner has found not a few
imitators and plagiari st s . There fore , i t may not be
out o f place to examine these deductions from the
standpoint Of critical psychology .
S ir John Lubbock , who devoted himsel f to the
study o f ant l i fe with the accuracy o f a professional
scient i st,and who carefully refrained from the
1 )“Uebe r die Grenzen des Naturerkennen s . Lectures by E.
D‘ubo i s-Reymond, l st i ssue (Le ipzig, p . 127.
4 Introduction.
degree o f perfect ion in their social instincts , and thatthereby the higher animal was gradually transformed
into man .
The tenabil i ty Of this assumpt ion will be discussed
in the fol lowing chapters . I t i s understood, that in our
comparative investigation,we shal l be guided
,not by
the postulates of evolut ionist theories , but by the prin
ciples of crit ical psychology , set forth at length in our
former essay,
“ Inst inct and Intel l igence in the Animal
K ingdom”
(Herder, St . Louis , MO. ,
Lately there has been invented a theory on the
psychic l i fe o f ants,which i s diametri cal ly opposed
to the popular attempts at humanization . Alb . Bethe l
has tried to set down ants and bees as mere “ reflex
machines, devoid even of the simplest sensitive per
ception and cognition , whil st he considers the intel l i
gence Of higher animals to be beyond all doubt . Thus
he hoped to succeed in destroying the paral l el i sm
establ i shed by us between the psych ic faculties Of ant s
and those o f higher animals,from which w e had
drawn the conclusion : we do not need ant intel l igence,
therefore neither animal intell igence . Bethe’
s work i s
Of undoubted value on account of its attack on the stil l
wide - spread popular views regarding ants as intell i
gent , human beings in miniature .
2 His theory has
1 )“Duerfen wir den Amei sen und Bienen psych i sche Qual i taeten
zusch re iben ? ” Bonn , 1898. (“A rch iv fuer die gesamte P hysio logic ,
”
LXX , 152) In th i s regard the Betrach tungen uebe r d ie staatl ich lebenden
Immen ,
” pub l i shed again st B ethe’
s essay by Charles Sajo in
Prometheus” ( 10 Jahrg . , 1899, Nr . 486 and go f ar beyond whati s adm i ss ible . S im i larl y the essay by K ien itz-Gerlo ff , “Besitzen di e
Ame i sen In tel l igen z ?” in Naturw issenschaf tl . Wochen sch ri f t” (X IV,
n: 20 and
Introduction. 5
already, on another occasion,
1 been subj ected by us to
a thorough discussion . Besides , in a longer essay,espec ial ly intended for profess ional zoologist s,2 we have
since then perfected our former argument , proving
that ants are no more mere reflex machines than dogs
and apes are intell igent beings . The theoretical s ide of
Bethe’
s psychological views was al so noticed in the
second edition Of our essay “ Instinct and Intell igence
in the Animal K ingdom”
( chapters 7 and In thi s
work, therefore , we shall return to them but occa
sional ly, to show the fatal result s Of attempting to
vindicate the intell igence of higher animals by com
p letely denying psychic act ivit ies in ants .
1 )“A new reflex theo ry of ant l i f e” (B iolog. Centralbl . , XVI I I ,
1898, n . 15 , p . 5772 )
“Die psych i schen Faeh igke i ten der Amei sen. S tuttgart , 1899.
Zoo logi ca , Hef t 26 ) p . 134 and'
f e l l . with 3 plates .3) p. 144 and f o l lowing.
CHAPTER I .
COM MUN ITY L IFE IN THE AN IMAL K IN GDOM .
1 . A General Survey of the Forms of Animal Com
mnni ties.
HE multipl icity o f bodily shapes apparent in an
mals i s not more remarkable than the variety
found in thei r biological relations . The maj ori ty o f
animals,lower as wel l as higher
,l ive singly
,and only
temporarily j oin other individuals Of the same‘species
for breeding purposes ; no lasting psychic ti e unites
them with others o f thei r species . Other animal s l ivein pairs during the breeding season
,and remain united
unti l the young are Old enough to shi ft for themselves ;thi s i s the case with most birds and mammals . I f the
Off spring continue to remain with thei r parents,fam
i l ies develop into herds,embracing the members Of
different, al l ied famil ies . Thus , v . g. ,wild oxen and
horses, the Chamois, antelopes and many apes are
gregarious animals . While rea l gregariousness i s
based on family ti es in a wider sense and is mostly
permanent , other animal s flock together to form troops
or hordes to undertake j ourneys in common , e . g., our
migratory birds in autumn,the Scandinavian lem
mings, etc . Insects, too, gather into s imi lar temporary
masses o f individual s o f the same or closely all ied
species , assuming the form of migrating swarms .
Migrat ing locust s are known to everybody ; but also7
8 Chapter I.
butterfl i es , dragon - flies and other insect s have beenObserved to form similar swarms .
But few animal species are so perfect in their social
organization , that the members o f the family construct
thei r habitations,rear their Off spring and provide for
thei r food in common . These are what A ri stotle call szaa mmma
,animals leading a well regulated social
l ife, comparable, in a way, to the social l i fe of man .
These animal s are chiefly the so—called state- forminginsects, the social wasps , bees , ants and termites . With
the two latter social l i fe i s carried to the highest degree
o f perfection found in the whole animal kingdom .
True,al so among birds
,the social weavers (P loceus)
construct habitat ions in comm on , inasmuch as they
bu il d thei r nests close together, and beavers unite in
colonies to buil d thei r dams,when di ff erent pairs are
interested in rai s ing the water level at the same spot .
But what i s wanting in the associat ions Of higher ani
mals i s co—Operation, including some suitable divi s ion
o f l abor for the rearing and nourishing of their Off
spring. The combination Of all these elements Of
social l i fe i s found only among the social insects , andin a prominent degree among ants.
V i ewed from the standpoint o f comparative psychology, social i s preferable by
‘far to s ingle l i fe . In thi s
connection, o f course, we mean a social l i fe based on
social instincts, on the laws Of sensitive cogni tion, and
not merely a union caused by the laws o f vegetativel ife, as i s the case with certain animal cong lomerates,
as sponges, coral s , polyps and many species o f Tuni
cates . The bond, which unites the diff erent individual s
o f these specie s to a colony,i s ent irely material . They
Communi ty L ife in the Animal K ingdom.9
l ive together from immediate , vegetat ive necessity ;for they l iteral ly grow as branches from a common
trunk. As i t i s an immediate vegetat ive necessity for
plants to bring forth twigs,leaves and blossoms
,so
mere vegetative necess ity forces a colony of S iphono
phores to separate into di ff erent loosely connected
individual s,some serving the purpose o f nutrition
(nutrient polyps ) , others o f propagation ( sexual
polyps ) , Of perception (perception polyps ) , of loco
motion ( swimming polyps ) , and o f protection (pro
tective polyps ) . To apply to the members o f such
colon ies the term “persons ( eating persons, swim
ming persons , as Haeckel and several other
zoologists have done , i s evidently out o f place, because
thi s term implies a psychi c independence which these
animals do not possess . I t would be more j ust ifiable
to conceive the whole growth Of S iphonophores as
one individual o f imperfect unity , cons isting Of various
members,which
,on account o f thei r diff erent func
t ions can more fitly be termed“organs” than “persons .
The similarity Of social l i fe in the colonies o f
polyps and Of ants i s very sl ight and superficial . The
latter,in Oppos it ion to the former, consi sts of indi
viduals organ i cal ly separated and independent in thei r
psychic act ivi ties . The members o f an ant colony are
complete individual s united to each other,not by the
laws of vegetative growth, but by instinctive sym
pathy. Thi s kind o f co - habitat ion must indeed be
regarded as a higher mani festation of psychic l i fe
unknown among sol itary animals .It i s true, with the state - forming insect s al so , the
instinctive association of the indivi dual s O f a colony
10 Chapter I.
is based on an organic, i . e. ,vegetative fact, namely
on the common descent from one and the same parent,cal led a “queen .
”
Honey - bees have never more than one queen in the
hive, ants may have several o f them . The instinctive
dependence o f bees on thei r queen i s not so great as
was formerly bel ieved . Moreover, in the bee - hive the
queen has essential ly no othe r function than that of
laying eggs ; for the rest , her attitude towards the
social activit ies Of the colony is enti rely passive ; even
when the bees are swarming the Old“ sovereign” i s
general ly hurried along by the crowd o f her“ faith ful
subj ects she does not lead the expedit ion, neither
does she determine its direction .
1 However,a swarm
o f bees deprived Of their queen wil l disperse,because
they have no common center Of attraction , no point
Of crystal l izat ion,so to say , around which to form a
new colony . In bee - hives the inst inctive bond uniting
queen and workers i s closer than among ants , because
the Odor emitted by the queen exerci ses a far more
powerful att ract ion 2 on the workers than in the case
1 ) Abbé J'. I . K iefl'
er commun icated the f ol lowing Observat ion sAn o l d queen must o f ten be ac tual ly f o rced out o f the h ive by the bee sal ready swarming ; somet imes the bees are gone, the queen be ing le f tbeh ind in the h i ve . In other cases I observed that the Old queen had
dropped to the ground ; in spi te o f th is , th e bees settled at quite a
d i ff erent plac e o n some t ree , and suff ered themse lves to be put in a
new h ive wh ich , however, they soon le f t again , because the queen was
m issing.
”
2) How power ful i s th i s attracti on, can be gathe red f rom an obser
vati on made by Fr. Sp i l lmann , S . I , in June , 1896 . On catch ing a
cluste r o f swarm ing bees, a f ew hundred worke r s had remained in the
catch ing apparatus and could not find the i r way to the new h ive. Led
by the i r sen se o f sme l l , however, they clustered around a queen that
had been lying dead on the ground f or e ight days, although i t be longedto a di ff eren t h ive.
12 Chapter I.
bers and the consequent greater independence of
instincts in the s ingle worker,an ant colony bears the
stamp rather o f democratic, republican , even socialistic
institutions . Vi ewed from the standpoint o f compara
tive psychology,the community l i fe o f ants i s more
per fect than that Of bees , on account of the greater
psychic independence o f each individual . I t i s thi s
qual ity O f individual independence that lends to ant
states,among al l associat ions Of anima l s , the greatest
resemblance to the pol itical societies of man based on
indiv idual inte ll igence and free will . This resemblance
i s Of course never more than mere analogy ; but it i s the
highest degree o f analogy known to exi st between the
social inst itutions o f man and o f the brute . Nor i s th e
term “state” appl icabl e to the social organizat ions Of
ants or, in fact , to any animal community, in any other
than a metaphorical1 meaning ; yet i t appl ies more
perfectly to ant states than to any other family of
insects , and to insect states rather than to those o f any
other animals .
Another important reason , why with ant colonie s
the use of th e term “state” i s comparatively more
appropriate than with the social organizations Of other
animals i s , because colonies O f ants are Often not
merely enlarged fami lies,” but contain al so members
O f entirely di ff erent species which are hospitably shel
tered in the colony . Thus a simple ant colony comes
to be a compound animal society. The above-men
tioned strangers are partly ants belonging to other
1 ) On th i s po int vi de A . Espinas, Des soc ietes an imales” (2e e’
d . )p . 372 . A l so Karl E . v . Baer ( in S toelzle,
“K . E . v. Baer und seine
Weltan schauung” p . W . Wundt,“Vorlesungen ueber die
Menschen und Tierseele, 2d cd ., p. 451.
Community L ife in the Animal Kingdom. 13
species 1 l iving in the colony as auxil iaries or
“slaves partly they are members Of altogether di f
ferent orders o f insects,especial ly o f certa in beetles
,
as the genera A temeles and L omechusa, which are
accorded a friendly reception by the ants, are l icked
and fed, the i r larvae being - reared by the ants as i fthey were the latters ’ own .
2 This i s a specia l form
of communi ty l i fe (symbiosis) , found nowhere e l se
throughout the animal kingdom . Symbiosi s i s only
equal to real community l i fe,when the members
engage in mutual psychic intercourse. Between a
hermit crab and a sea anemone that settles'
on the
former ’s’
back , between a smal l fish (Trachichthys tuni
catus) and a large sea nettle harboring i t wi th in the
c ircle Of it s tentacles,3 there i s amutual relat ion (mutu
al ism ) use ful to both of them ,without
,however
,
approaching any psychic intercourse, although the one
instinctively looks for the other . There i s a similar
relat ion b etween ants and many o f the i r tolerated
guests, whi lst thei r relation to their slaves and to thei r
genuine guests attains a higher degree o f psycho
logical intercourse and becomes real communi ty l ife.
Moreover, paras ites , hosti le intruders and indi fferently
1 ) See W asmann , D ie zusammengesetzten Nester und gemi schtenKo lon ien der Ame isen , part I I .
2 ) See the“Autob iography O f a L omechusa, in S timmen aus
Maria Laach ,
” LI I 69, where the l iterature o f th e subj ect i senumerated. Th e number o f the regu lar n estmates o f ants and
termites i s rath e r con siderable. Our“Krit i sches Verze ichn i s der
myrmekoph il en und term itoph ilen A rth ropoden ,
” publ i shed in 1 894.
al ready contain s an t guests and 109 term ite guests , havin g the
most var iou s b io logi cal re lat ion s to the i r h o sts . S ince then many new
spec ies f rom. al l quarters o f the world have been d i scovered and
desc ribed.
3) See“2 0 0 1. Anzeiger, Vol . XI n. 278, p. 240.
14 Chapter I.
tolerated cohab i tants are found in the society of manyhigher and lower animals . They are present l ike
wise in the nests of social wasps , hornets and bumble
bees ; but genuine guests ( Symphiles ) , which, in spite
O f thei r morphological di fference, are treated by their
hosts as enj oying equal rights, as members Of the
family, are met with only among ants and termites .
That stray chamois or steinbocks shoul d j oin a herd
Of goats, i s evidently something quite di ff erent from
the fact that ants keep aphides and scale - insects as
thei r mi lk cows,and tend even thei r eggs ; or that
they feed from thei r own mouths certain species o f
beetles, which on being licked a fford the ants a specialpleasurable sensat ion, herein treat ing them the same
as th ey do their own comrades and larvae . The
mutual social re lat ionship which i s here seen to exist
between the animals of di ff erent species, and which
we term Symphily (ca-auto.) is by far more perfeet . A l though , as we shal l show later on, i t i s inti
mately connected with the instinct O f adoption which
occurs also among higher an imals , the relat ion exi st
ing between ants on the one hand and thei r slaves
and genu ine guests on the other, i s nevertheless a
form of perfect Symbiosi s unparalleled among theVertebrates .
2 . The S ocial Basis of Ant S tates.
As was already indicated, the ultimate foundation
o f ant states i s organic. I t i s organic, not only be
cause i t i s due to the descent from a common ovip
arous female but more especial ly because it i s con
ditioned, in Its essential outl ines, by polymorphism,
Communi ty Li fe in the Animal Kingdom. 15
in other words,by bodily di ff erence in the individual s
Of a colony. Ant states are organical ly divided into
fixed groups of di ff erent “castes, possessing diff erentcorporal and psychic qual it ies . These castes take th eir
origin from the pecul iar organic development O f ants ;they depend on laws of vegative growth, not on the
intel l igence and free wil l Of individual s , as do the
classes o f human society. By far the majority o f
members o f ant colonies consis t, o f course, Of wingle ss neuters
,which go by the name o f
“workers” or
s imply “ants These workers are a secondary form
Of the female, .the Ovaries being stunted , while brain
and inst incts are al l the more highly developed .
l
With many ants,especially with the genera Pheidole,
P heidologeton, E citon, Co lobopsis, etc . , the workers
are again divided into two more or less strictly sep
arated castes differ ing in bodily structure , namely
workers proper and soldiers , the latter possessing a
comparatively huge head and formidable j aws . The
W ingless workers and soldiers are entrusted with the
colony ’s soc ial wel fare ; i t i s thei r duty to build the
nest,to tend the young
,to gather provis ions and to
de fend the community against host il e invaders,whil st
the winged males and females attend to the propaga
t ion of the species . A fter having been fertil ized ,which i s generally done in the air du ring thei r nuptial
fl ight,
-the females lose the i r wings and become“queens , ei ther founding new colonies or being takenback by workers into their Old nest for oviposit ion .
The basis, therefore, of the so—cal led pol it ical con
1 ) Hence they cannot be simpl y cal led “stunted females,” no morethan the wo rkers among bees.
16 Chapter I.
stitution of ants1 IS in fact organic; i t consi sts in the
descent from one ferti le female, and in the di ff eren
tiation Of the descendants into castes diff ering in
bodi ly and psychic qual i ties, as a result of the verv
same specific ferti l ity . The social bond, however,which uni tes the members Of an ant colony and sep
arates them from other colonies o f the same species,i s psychic and instinctive. It i s the feeling of fellowship, the instinct of sociali ty,
resulting from common
descent ; i t i s, moreover, the instinct of imi tation
which urges the workers Of the same colony to act
in concert . This unity and co - Operation i s eff ected
by means of a certain sensi le feeler language : by atouch of thei r feelers thousands Of members of a
colony immediately recognize one another as belong
ing to the same community and eff ectuallv discover
the intruder ; by taps of thei r antennae they exchange
their feel ings and perceptions and thus draw the
attention of other workers Of their colony to the same
work . The same feel er language i s al so the means
Of communication o f ants in mixed colonies with thei r
auxi liaries o f other species , and o f genuine ant guests
with thei r hosts .
This di stinction between members Of thei r own
colony and those o f others i s effected by verv del icate
organs of smel l 2 s ituated in the antennae . Members1 ) We mean here i n the fi rst place the simple ant soc iet ies wh i ch
embrace no members o f d i ff eren t specie s.2 ) W e have al ready proven in our work, “
D ie psych i schen Faehigkei ten der Ame isen ” Zoo logica,
”26th i ssue , p . 10 that there i s
n ot merel y quest ion o f a“ chem ical refl ex” ( as Beth e cal l s i t ) , but o f
a real se n sit ive percept ion . On th e other hand, Lubbock ’ s experiments(“On the sen ses, in st incts and in te l l igence o f an imal s” !London ,
p . 233 and f ol l . ) have shown that an arbitrari ly chosen sign or password i s equal ly out o f place , as i s eviden t f rom th e f act that an an t
wh ich has lost its feelers is nevertheless recogn i zed by her nest mates.
Communi ty Life in the Animal Kingdom.17
o f the same colony have the same del i cate nest
odor,” and by lick ing strangers they are able to trans
fer it to other insects . A beetl e o f the genus A temeles
having been l icked in a friendly manner by but one
ant o f a Formica colony, will be acknowledged as a
friend by the other ants o f the same colony, whil st
otherwi se they would attack it.1 The “nest odor” can
be communicated to members Of other colonies not
only by l icking but al so by feeding. The smel l of the
salivary gland secretions2 thus seems to serve ants as
wel l as bees as a means of recognizing the “citizens
o f the same state .”
It i s , no doubt , downright nonsense for Buechner3
to put ant state s on the same leve l w ith human
republ ics , much more so to consider them more perfect
than the latter . And when modern sociologist s“ t ry
to establ i sh thei r re forms o f human society on such
foundations,we are j u stified in styl ing their endeavors
utopian schemes . The promoters of such ideas for
1 ) More on th e s ign ificance o f the sal i vary gland secret ion s as a
mean s o f recogn i t ion among an ts wil l be f oun d in the essay ment ionedabove “
Die psych . Faeh igkei ten der Ame i sen ,
” p . 16 and 97 6 . On the
latter pages we have also shown that it i s not merely the sme l l o f the
sal ivary gland secret ion s adhe r ing to a beetle, that induces the ants torecei ve it af ter i t has been l icked by a single ant o f that co lony, butthat, besides , other psych i c e lemen ts are in play and must be con sideredin explain in g the f act. See al so “ In stinct and Intel l igence in the
An imal K ingdom ,
” p . 158.
2 ) See the in teresting l i ttle essay by N . Ludwig, Futtersaf t Oderth ierische Veran lagung als der Beherrsch er und O rdner gehe imn iss
vo l ler Vorgaenge im B ienenvo lke , publ i shed by the “Leipziger Bienenzeitung,” 1896 . Likewise N . Ludwig, “Ueber Geruchempfindung und
R iechorgan der Hon igbiene” (“Natur und O ff enbarung, 1899, 9th
i ssue , p . 554
3)“Gei stesleben der T iere, p . 52.
4) See e. g. Cognetto de Mart i is,“Le f orme primitive nel la
evoluzione eco nomica.
” Torino, 1881 .
2
18 Chapter I.
get,that with man class diff erences rest on far di f ~
ferent bases than di ff erences o f caste s among ants .
With man they are the outcome of changeable,out
ward conditions o f l i fe, or perhaps the result o f the
intel l igent free choice o f th e individuals concerned ;wi th ants, however , they spring directly from thehereditary organic laws o f polymorphi sm . Besides,those social i st ic theori sts forget that among ants there
exists perfect equal ity and fraternity between all the
members of a colony, for the very reason that these
animal s are gu ided by thei r soc ial instincts only, not
by independent reasoning, and that they th erefore
are never l iable, as men unh appily o ften are , egotist i
cally to prefer thei r indivi dual wel fare to the common
weal . I f those social i st enthusiasts could trans form
men into ants,then they might be j ustified in pro
posing ant republ ics as the i dea l pol itical condition .
H . E . Ziegler 1 i s r ight , there fore , in saying
With ants the social di ff erentiation i s conditioned
by organization and instincts,and i s thus accurately
fixed and regulated , whilst with man the social differ
entiation i s due to education,exerci se and custom ;
only the foundation o f man ’s social l i fe i s determined
by certain social instincts,it s further development
,
however, i s regulated by the intel lect , by education
and custom To argue about man ’s social
institut ions from the relations exi st ing among insects
would be committing a gross error, all the more so
i f one should consider the communisti c insect ‘states
1 )“D ie Naturwissen schaf t und d i e soc ialdemokratisch e Th eor ie,
p . 186 . See al so R. L euckart,Uebe r den Pol ymorph i smus der
Individuen Oder di e E rscheinungen der A rbeitste i lung in der Natur,"Giessen , 1851 .
20 Chapter I.
In what does the pretended psychological superi
ority o f the associat ions o f higher animals over ant
states consi st ? Let us try to clear up this question .
3. The Communi ties of the H igher Animals Com
pared wi th those of Ants.
Both Ziegler and Darwin 1 point to the fact, that
the higher mammals,especially apes
,sometimes form
societies for the purpose o f receiving notice of danger,for providing mutual protect ion and defense
,for ob
taining nouri shment,sometimes even for united at
tacks on the i r prey .
” 2 Societ ie s o f ants have the
very same end in View . A l though their main pur
pose i s to rear thei r young in common , yet those
other secondary purposes are not only not excluded ,but thei r pursuit and attainment by ants reach a de
gree of perfection unequaled by the above mentioned
higher animal s . However,neither D arwin , nor Es
pinas,nor Ziegler
,nor
,in fact, any modern student
o f animal psychology has ever succeeded in proving
that apes are conscious of their purpose, and therefore
act with intell igence, and that ants are wi thout con
sciousness of purpose, and therefore acting merely
from instinct.Let u s consider more closely the di ff erent points
o f compari son . The higher animals l iving in hordes
aid thei r comrades by certain call s,giving warning
o f danger . Some o f them , e . g . , the chamois , post
regular “sentinel s” for th i s purpose . However,ants
do the same and in a manner much more indicat ive
1 )“Descent o f Man , I . Chap. 4.
2) Z iegler l. e ., p . 189.
Community Life in the Animal Kingdom. 21
of intel l igence . The whole di ff erence l ies in the fact
that instead o f cal l s , the ants u se another means o f
sensile communication, namely, thei r feelers . I f a
troop o f“sanguine slavemakers
, as McCook call s
them, (Formica sanguinea) , approaches a nest of the
negro ant (Formica fusca) , then the first black antwh ich has noticed the foe hurries back into the nest ,communicates her own fright to the other workers by
rapidly tapping them with her feelers and thus gives
a general alarm . The larvae and pupae are hurried
down from the higher parts o f the nest into the deeper
galleries and chambers,and i f the foe advances as far
as these apartments , the black ants run head over
heel s through the secret openings at the Opposite s ide,and with thei r precious burden cl imb up stalks and
bushes to save i t from the foe . Sometimes they re
sort to th i s final means o f escape at the first news
o f danger and take to their heel s before the van,
guard o f the foe has reached the interior o f the nest .
In a s imilar way,but adopting di fferent tacti cs
,the
yel low and the brownish - black meadow ants (Lasiusflavius and niger) struggle for sa fety, when their
nest s are attacked by some Formica species . As soon
as the approach of the foe i s di scovered , the fact i s
announced with l ightning- l ike rapidity throughoutthe colony by rapid strokes o f the feelers . The
larvae and pupae,th e winged males and the queens
are carried to the lowest recesses o f the nest , and the
avenues to it are hasti ly blocked up with earth to
prevent the enemy ’s advance . Whilst the smal l
L asius i s constantly closing up the approaches to theinterior o f the nest with b i ts of earth , such of th e foe
22 Chapter I.
as have ventured too far, are seized and k i l led bycrowds of the assailed .
I f with higher animals i t i s a mark o f intel l igenceto “uti l ize the senses o f al l for the protect ion o f the
commonwealth,
” the same must be sai d o f ants , and
in a more perfect degree . The po sting o f sentinel s
for the protection o f the community may be observed
with these social insects j ust as well , and even better
than with the social apes . In a nest o f Formica san
guinea compri sing four species o f slaves (or auxil
faries ) , namely, F. fusca, rnfibarbis, rufa and pratensis
,which i s under my Observation for many years ,
I can veri fy th i s fact every day . We subj oin a
diagram of thi s observation nest, as i t wil l o ften be
referred to in the sequel .
The main nest and its annex are made o f glass
plates in wooden frames . The space between the two
plates in each nest i s partly fil led with earth , their
vertical distance being from 1 0 to 1 2 mill imeters,so
that the an ts have freedom o f motion to perform their
work without being able to screen themselves from
observation . The upper glass plate i s generally cov
ered with a black cloth ; for i f l ight were permitted
to enter,the ants would coat the lower surface o f the
glass with earth in order to darken the'
interior o f
the nest . By means o f glass tubes the main nest and
its annex are put in communication with each other
and with the other parts o f the nest, which are l ike
wise o f glass . (See diagram . )In the main nest, whi ch corresponds to the interior
o f an ord inary ant nest , the maj ority o f the ants are
to be found with thei r queens, their larvae, pupae and
24 Chapter 1.
guests . In the front nest we see generally a number o fants basking in the sun or engaging in different labors .
In the top nest a small number of sanguinea, rufa and
pratensis are usually found e ither on guard , or wait
ing for the fl ies or other food which I occasional ly
th row in . In the glass bulb of the feeding tube, even
i f i t happens to contain no sugar or honey,there are
always one or two ant s,mostly fusca or ruli
barbis, which have a special l iking for thi s depart
ment. Even on the dumping grounds,whither the
ants carry their dead,there are
,as a rule
,a few ants
to be found, remaining immovable and watching for
any susp iciou s circumstance in the nest or in i ts
v icinity . On March 2 6 , 1896 ,from morning til l eve
n ing one F. fusca and one F. pratensis were posted in
the re fuse nest ; on March 2 7, at 7 a . m . two F. pra
tensis; at 1 0 a . m . two F. sanguinea t ook the ir place .
On March 2 8, i n the forenoon, one sanguinea
was on guard , which having been taken out by
me and confined was soon after replaced by another
sanguinea for the rest o f the day. On March 2 9 the
whole day one sanguinea ; on March , 30 at a . m. ,
two fusca ; when at 8 a . m . I had taken out and con
fined one o f the two , I found that with in the Space o f
hal f an hour another fusca had taken its place, whereupon both remained there during the whole o f the
forenoon,etc . Only during winter, a fter I had com
pletely emptied the re fu se nest and le ft it in the
same condit ion for a long t ime , no ants were seen
there for several weeks , because thi s part o f thei r
nest was no longer of any vital interes t to them , and
because the cool temperature kept them in the main
Community Life in the Animal Kingdom. 25
nest and in its immediate vicinity. I t can hardly bemaintained that thi s posting of sentinel s in the di f
ferent parts o f the nest was merely due to polymorphism ; for the cognitive and appetit ive powers
o f the single individual ants o f those five species in
various ways take a prominent part in i t. As we
shal l show hereafter,the same Obta ins in other forms
of the divis ion o f l abor in ant states .“Social animals perform many l ittl e services for
each other ; horses nibble, and cows l ick each other
wherever they feel an itch ing ; monkeys hunt for
each other ’s external parasites ,” etc . Thus Ziegler
reproduces the statements of Ch . Darwin . But ant s
o f the same colony are quite as serviceable to each
other. Whoever has kept ants in su itably arranged
nests o f observation, where th ey feel comfortable and
at home , can observe such“acts o f charity” a hundred
times a day. Every time I gently l i ft the b lack cloth ,which protects the upper glass plate o f the main nest
from the rays o f the sun,I witness one or more of
these lovely scenes . Just now a worker o f F. san
guinea i s lying immovable, stretched on her s ide, whilst
some of the companions are wash ing her ; a sanguinea,a fusca and a rufibarbis per form th is work, and l ickher careful ly, whil st she continues immovable ; then
they turn her around and l ick her j ust as care fully on
the other side. A fter hal f a minute the l ight which
floods the nest interrupts the per formance,and they
flee to some darker spot , the patient soon fol lowing
their example . A ll the workers of each o f the five
ant specie s l iving in my mixed colony without distinc
t ion render these services of cleanl iness to one another .
26 Chapter I.
Sometimes one of the domi nant, sometimes one of theenslaved species i s the recipient
,no dist inction being
made between masters and slaves in performing these
offi ces . Just as with cows in l icking each other, so with
ants, the performance of th is service general ly causes
no less satis faction to the active than to the passive
partner, and, when apes look for each other’ s parasites ,
we must, in order to arrive at a correct psychological
appreciation of such “kind Offices,
” not overlook the
fact that ape s devour with great rel i sh the parasites
di scovered in the fur of thei r comrade .
As regards these mutual cleaning services,ants
and the higher social animal s are pretty much on a
par . The only di ff erence i s, that with ants they occur
much oftener than w ith the latter . In both they pro
ceed, in the first place, from the desire for cleanliness,
which i s no doubt of an instinctive nature .1 In the
second place , they are due to the instinctive, mutual
attachment between the members of animal associa
tions . The fact that ants clean a dust - covered com
panion by carefully brushing” her down with thei r
mandibles and l icking her with thei r tongues,when
viewed from the point o f comparative psychology,
finds its explanation in the same psychic mot ives as
when “apes,after having rushed through a thorny
brake,wil l examine each other ’ s fur and extract every
thorn or burr .” To l ick off the dust is , by i tself, notmore agreeable for ants; than i t i s for monkeys to
extract the thorns .
With ants the mutual attachment of nest mates
1 ) See Bal l ion ,
“De l mstinct de la propreté chez les animaux,
2d cd. , Bazas, 1895.
28 Chapter I.
recovered by the next day, whilst without nursing shewoul d probably have peri shed , as i s generally the casew ith ants paralyzed by poison .
I f,therefore
,on account o f this nursing, Lub
bock and Romanes ascribe to ants a certain degree o f“care and tenderness” lavi shed on thei r s ick and
wounded companions,they are right in so far as those
actions are due to instinctive impul ses,and not to the
conscious a ff ections o f rational beings . For comparing
the associations o f ants with those o f higher animal s
i t may,at any rate , be o f particular interest to noti ce,
that such acts occur al so among ants,notwithstanding
thei r highly choleric temperament .“Yet
,social animal s al so render more important
services to one another ; thus wolves and some other
beast s o f prey hunt in packs and aid one another in
attacking their victims . The Hamadryas baboons turn
over stones to find insects , etc ., and when they come
to a large one as many as can stand round,turn it
over together and share the booty . Social animals
mutual ly defend each other ” This quotation from
D arwin ’ s “D escent o f Man
” cannot j usti fy Ziegler
any more than his former arguments in concluding,
that the community l i fe o f wild catt le , baboons and
other mammals i s more closely related to the social
organisms o f man , than that o f ants . On the contrary,the mani festations o f social l i fe recorded above occur
with ants even in far greater perfection.
Ants,too
,hunt in company, especially the so - cal led
sanguine slavemakers (F. sanguinea and rubicunda) ,the red Amazon ants (Polyergus rufescens, lucidus
and breviceps) , and all the species belongi ng to the
Communi ty L ife in the Animal Kingdom.29
Doryl ide genera E ci ton and Anomma. These are the
dreaded legionary ants and driver ants of tropical
America and A frica . The mi li tary expeditions of
F. sanguinea are generally undertaken in small divi
s ions o f from twenty to fifty workers,with the purpose
not only of robbing the neuter pupae of the slave
species (F. fusca and rufibarbis) , but o ften al so o f
pillagi ng the nests o f smaller ants belonging to the
genus Lasius, the larvae , pupae and winged individual s
o f which are carried o ff to be devoured . During the
t ime o f the nuptial fl ight o f Lasius niger, many san
guinea colonies are hunting in the vicinity o f their nest
for the heavy Lasius females which drop to the
ground . Then either singly or with united forces these
robbers pul l thei r victims into thei r strongholds,
where they are mercilessly slaughtered . On the afternoon o f August 2 4, 1888
,I witnessed such a typical
hunting expedit ion o f several sanginea colonies near
Exaten (Holland ) , on the outskirts o f a fir planta
t ion . The road passing the nests was covered far and
wi de with sanguineas rushing upon every Lasius
female that dropped from the air, as upon a welcome
booty. Within the space of an hour I counted more
than one hundred females of Lasius niger that fel l
victims to the hunters .
The individual init iative of ants i s mani fested on
such occasions in the same degree as with the higher
mammal s ; whilst concerted action and suitable
co - operat ion reach even greater perfection than with
the latter . At any time a troop of our common red
backed hil l ants (F. rufa) may be seen on some forestpath , with combined forces dragging to their home a
‘30 Chapter I.
l arge , heavy dung- beetle (Geotrupes typhoeus) ; or a
number o f them are hauling to the nest a large beam
to our eyes i t i s but a broken twig— which i s more
than fifty t imes the weight o f any single ant ! Some
pull in front, others pu sh from behind, and even i f the
latter for a few seconds pull in the wrong direction,they soon notice i t
,and o ff i t goes in the right direction
to the nest . On Apri l 2 5, 1897, I observed in the
neighborhoo d of a pratensis nest near Exaten, two
workers dragging together a beetle o f the genus
Calathus towards their h il l ; they went at a double
quick, without hindrance on either s ide, both ants run
ning backwards with equal speed .
The mode o f acting in concert i s di ff erent withdi ff erent species o f ants . Among our Formica species
i t reaches its h ighest degree of development with thehil l ants (F. rufa and pratensis) , the initiat ive o f the
singl e ants bearing rather a secondary part . The
sangu ine slavemaker (F. sanguinea) , however, which
i s able to proceed nni tis virions wherever it seems suit
abl e,combines with thi s power a remarkable degree
of individual ini tiative, similar to that noticed in dogs,apes
,and other higher animal s .
I t i s o f special interest to watch the co - operat ion
and divi s ion o f l abor o f di ff erent species in mixed
colonies o f ants . In my above mentioned observation
nest,which contains besides F. sanguinea four other
Formica species as auxil iaries , these five species have
divided the work necessary for the wel fare o f the
communi ty, so as to give each species exactly the share
corresponding most to its instinct ive preferences . This
divi sion of labo r, however, i s neither mechanically
Communi ty Life in the Animal K ingdom. 31
defined, nor confined within the cast - i ron rules estab
l ished by the specific character of each ant,but the
workers of one species wi ll at least to some degree
take part in the work o f any other species . Thus e . g.
the rearing of the young in the main nest ( see p . 23)i s chiefly attended to by the sanguineas themselves ,but all the four auxi liary species j o in in the same
work. In the glass bulb o f the feeding tube containing
the sugar,the greater number of vis itors consi sts of
fusca or rnfibarbis fi l l ing their crops by l icking up
sugar or honey,with wh ich they hurry to feed thei r
companions in the other part s o f the nest . Sanguinea,
”
mi fa and pratensis often prefer to carry the grains o fsugar in the lump” from the feeding tube s to the topnest
,mani festing again various individual d i ff erences
in thei r mode of act ion , quite independent of thei r
specific character . Somet imes the lump of sugar i scarried only as far as y ( see diagram on p . 2 3) to the
top of the tube,whence i t i s transported by other ants
general ly,however
,i t i s immediately brought (beyond
x) to the front nest, where i t i s carr ied to the bottom
in thei r mandibles , or el se , but rather seldom , i t i s
s imply dropped from a considerabl e height . This I
observed quite often with sanguinea, more rarely with
pratensis. When I introduce a large fly or some other
l ive victim into the front nest,i t i s mostly sanguinea
and mfibarbis that dart upon it furiously , whil st rufaand pratensis mani fest on such occasions remarkable
ski l l and perseverance in holding down the struggl ing
and fluttering victim . The sanguinea with their
powerful mandibles attend chiefly to the di smembering
of thei r prey, whilst the conveyance of the larger pieces
32 Chapter I.
into the inner parts o f the nest i s general ly done byrufa or sanguinea.
I t was of special intere st to watch the behavior o f
my ants,when a new individual o f the beetle L om
echnsa strumosa which l ives with F. sanguinea as a
genuine guest , was introduced into the top nest . At
fi rst,as long as there were no rufa and pratensis in the
nest as auxil iaries,he was
,i f not descending into the
main nest h imsel f, taken at last by a sanguinea and
carried down, i n spite o f his obstinate , pass ive resist
ance . Later on i t was genera lly rufa and pratensisthat transported the guest who attracted thei r attention
in a remarkable degree . Once a rnfa happened to be
alone in the top nest and for a long time was trying
in vain to get hold o f one o f the two L omechnsas
happening to be there,when all at once she ran down
to the front nest. Scarcely more than three seconds
had elapsed before she returned with four other rnfas
which she had called to her assistance . Now the five
rnfas immediately set to work with united eff orts
to rai se the L omechnsas, each of which was then car
r ied down to the main nest by one o f the ants .1
I f similar scenes had been w itnessed in a society
formed o f di ff erent specie s of higher animals,we could
not help admiring the harmonious co - operation and the
suitable,but by no means mechanical , divi sion o f labor.
However , i t i s not the higher animals , but ants th at
act in thi s way,and in order to save the pretended
intell igence of the former,ants are classed as in
1 ) A more accurate description of th e last -ment ion ed observat ionwi l l be f ound in our essay, “
D ie psych i schen Faeh igke iten der
Amei sen 26 th i ssue, Stuttgart , p . 63 if . in the
chapter on the power o f commun icat ion in ants.
Communi ty L ife in the Animal K ingdom.33
stinctive automatons, or even as unperceptive “reflex
machines
Yet,neither in ants nor in any other animals
,are
co - operat ion and divi sion of labor such as to become
mutual, individual assistance, as i s the case with man .
The same obj ect attract s the attention of several indi
viduals and leads them to busy themselves about i t,each in its own way . Working in company i s due
partly to the s imilarity o f instinct ive di spos it ions in the
s ingle ants,partly to the instinct o f imi tat ion . H . v .
Ihering refers to thi s in the case o f the Brazi l ian leaf
cutting ants (A tta) , and has pointed out the psycho
logical importance of th i s di ff erence as i t exists
between societies of animals and man .
1
Everybody knows that not only the higher mam
mal s but also the social insect s uni te in defending thei rcommunity and especial ly thei r young. To be thor
oughly convinced of this fact you need but step on
a wasps ’ nest or si t down on an ant hil l . Indeed,the
per fect unity and heroic “se lf- sacrifice” which social
insect s and in part i cular most ants d isplay in de fend
ing their nests and the i r o ff spring are simply unsur
passed by any other animal . This unselfishness,”
thi s “spirit o f sacrifice” and motherly love in ani
mals wil l be referred to in particu lar,when we come
to speak o f the breeding and nursing inst incts .
Higher gregarious animals,e . g . ,
bison s or baboons,
do not in defending the community against a common
foe de fend also the individual s as such . When a
hunter lying in ambush has kil led one of the herd,the
1 )“D ie Amei sen vorf Rio Grande do Sul ,
”in Berl in er Entomo
log ische Zeitsch ri f t,” 1 894, 3d i ssue, p . 346 .
3
34 Chapter 1.
other b i sons general ly take an inquis it ive sni ff at the
corpse, but they make no assault on the foe for the
sake o f a wounded or dead companion . Wolves are
far more unceremonious . Instead o f devis ing plans
for revenge,they devour their dead or wounded
“brother.” Ants , when engaged in common defense ,aim at defending the individual o f the colony j ust as
l itt le as do the higher animals . An assailed ant 15
never defended by her companions for her own sake .
They rush upon the foe,only because they see in him
a common danger,and because thei r warl ike spir it has
been aroused . This was not iced by Forel and Lub
bock, and I can only confirm it . Therefore, neither
higher animals,nor ants
,when e ither at work or in
battle,mani fest anyth ing l ike individual assi stance in
the human sense o f the word .
1
“A l l animal s l iving in a body, which de fend them
selves or attack thei r enemies in concert , must indeed
be in some degree fai thful to one another and thosethat fol low a leader must be in some degree obedient.
When the baboons in Abyssinia plunder a garden , they
s il ently follow their leader and i f an imprudent young
animal makes a noise,he receives a slap from the
others to teach him si lence and obedience .
Examples perfectly s imilar to the one j ust men
1 ) The pretended instances o f indiv idual assi stance in th e legi onaryant Eci ton hamatum recorded by Bel t (The Natural i st i n Nicaragua,2d cd .
, 1888, p . are eas ily expla ined by the fact that these m igrating ants tried to take along the i r straggl ing compan ion s, as i s o f ten
the case in m igrat ion s o f European Formi ca spec ies . Theref ore, there
i s no reason why we should credit the E ci tons wi th a h igher “sympathyf or the ir compan ions” than other ants, as Romane s doe s ( “An imalIntel l igence,” 6 th cd . , p . Th i s case i s no proo f o f sympathy, butmerel y a man i festat ion o f the inst inct o f soc iab leness.
36 Chapter 7.
course, not so prominent with ants, whose queen
i s much less of a center for the instinct ive activi
t ies o f the workers . With ants i t i s j ust the
workers that by the i r re stlessact iv ity and the remark
able display o f individual init iat ive,are most power
fully stimulat ing the instincts o f thei r companions to
imitation , and thereby to actual co - operat ion in a given
work . The only di ff erence between the baboons
described by D arwin and our ants i s, that with the
former the instinctive communicat ion between the
single individual s of a troop is eff ected mostly through
cal ls , with the latter, however, through taps of the
feelers . But both sometimes resort to more drastic
gestures to supplement thei r means o f“commun ica
t ion .
” I f an excited F. sanguinea or fusca can notsucceed by taps of her feelers in inducing a companion
to j oin her work,she sometimes seizes her by the man
dibles or by a leg and simply drags her to the obj ect
which had first attracted her own attention . In the
same wav an ant often protect s her comrades from
a threaten ing danger first noticed by her. In my
observation nests I repeatedly noticed some F. san
guinea or fusca,by taps o f her feelers or some other
more drastic measures warning their companions to
be “on thei r guard .
” When , e . g . , I took away the glass
tube connect ing the feeding bulb with the top nest
( see diagram p . and caught a few o f the “ sent i
nel s” that instantly sall ied forth from the opening o f
the top nest ready to fight,I o ften remarked some ants,
that were posted near the Opening of the top nest ,approaching the others
,tapping them with their feelers
as a danger signal,and even getting hold o f one, that
Community Life in the Animal K ingdom. 37
was about to run out , and pulling her back from the
dangerous spot. To interpret such psychic mani festa
t ions in higher animals as “ intel l igent act ions” i s evi
dently incons istent with d enying to ants an equal or
even higher degree of “ individual intell igence.” Criti
cal psychology will regard such occurrences in antsas well as in higher animals merely as associations ofsensile representations and impulses, which must be
classed as instinctive sensation, and not as intelligent
thought.1 The social instincts of animals
,which in
thei r actual use are variously influenced and ruled by
individual sense experience,perfectly explain all the
appearances of “fidel ity ,” “obedience
,
” “caution ,” etc . ,
which occur with state - forming'
insects not in a lower,but rather in a higher degree than with apes and othermammal s . To credit h igher animal s with quas i—human
intell igence i s,there fore
,to humanize animal s in a
manner equally arbitrary and inconsi stent .
To sum up the results of our comparative study on
the social l i fe of ants and of higher animal s . The
associat ions o f apes and of higher Vertebrates are
based on social instincts, which lead them to co - Operate
for mutual protection and de fense, and partly , too,for the procuring of food . This co - operat ion i s more
or l ess powerful ly influenced and varied in i ts man i fes
tations according to the sensil e experiences and aff ec
t ions o f di ff erent individual s . Exactly the same mode
o f co - operation,but of a st il l more perfect, sui table,
and variable nature , we observe al so in out states.
With these animals, too ,
i t i s founded on social
1 ) See“ In st in ct and Intel l igen ce in the An imal K ingdom
(Herder, S t. Loui s, especial ly Chap. I I I .
38 Chapter I.
instincts, which , corresponding to thei r organic polymorphi sm , are diff erent in di ff erent classes ( castes )o f the state . As regards the applicat ion o f the sensi le
experiences and aff ections o f individuals , there exi sts
with in the range o f these classes a very great inde
pendence and variableness of individual action, which
with several ant species, e . g . , the sangu ine slavemaker
(F. sanguinea) , i s scarcely in ferior to that observed
amongst higher Vertebrates . Besides , the perfectionof social co - operation o f higher mammal s i s far from
equal ing that o f ants ; for with the latte r it extends
not only to protect ion,de fense and hunting
,but al so
to construct ion o f thei r dwell ings,to the rearing o f the
young, and to the support o f al l the“members o f the
state” by comparatively few individuals,going by turns
i n quest o f food and supplying the community with
provi sions . Nothing o f the kind i s known o f apes or
other h igher animal s . The providing of food ,
in par
ticular varies greatly with the di ff erent kinds of ant5 !
i t embraces “cattle herding ( the keeping o f aph ides ) ,hunting ( robbing o f insects , in particular robbing o f
the pupae o f other ants ) , agricul ture (gra i n gathering
ants ) , horticul ture ( ants rai sing fungi ) , etc . Nor are
the mil itary expeditions o f several ant species under
taken merely from want of food , but al so for the sake
o f making slaves,the ravi shed pupae o f workers of
other ant species being reared as members o f their
own state. Through th i s su itable incorporation o f
outsiders into thei r own colony the community l i fe o f
ants in the “mixed colonies
” reaches a quas i - mtel ligent
universal ity, which i s vainly sought for among higher
animals . The same universal ity i s mani fested al so by
Communi ty L ife i n th e A nimal K ingdom. 39
the fact, that many ant species treat l ike members oftheir own family even di ff erent orders o f insects
,
namely the beetles o f the genera A temeles, L omechusa,
Xenodusa, etc . , which are known as“
genuine ant
guests,” and that they even tend and rear thei r young
as i f they were thei r own .
I t must,therefore
,be conceded that the community
l i fe among ants i s more developed and more perfectthan that among apes and other higher animal s hence,
from the point of view of comparative psychology,the communi ties of ants represent the most perfect ofanimal societies.
CHAPTER I I .
WARS AND SLAVERY IN TH E A N IMAL K INGDOM .
1 . Wars Among H igher Animals.
ODERN evolutionists represent the social l i feamong higher Vertebrates with the aim o f mak
ing i t the main support o f the bridge spanning thechasm between man and the brute . Thus , Ziegler
concludes hi s description by a psychological paral lel ,in which
,j ust as D arwin did
,he tries to establ i sh the
greatest possible s imilarity between the social l i fe o f
animals and o f man . Let us examine th i s evolut ion
istic attempt in the l ight o f scientific psychology .
Says Ziegler “There exists, therefore, among animals a social community l i fe s imilar to what we meet
among the hordes and tribes o f uncivil ized nations .
Even wars , which have taken place among the hordes
and tribes o f the human race s ince prehi storic t imes,
have their counterparts in the animal world,as i s
proved by the following example recorded by D arwin .
“ ‘Brehm states on authority o f the well - known
traveler Sch imper, that in Abyssinia , when the baboons
belonging to one species descend in troops from the
mountains to plunder the fields,they sometimes
encounter troops o f another species and then a fight
ensues ; the geladas rol l down great stones , which the
hamadryas t ry to avoid and then both species, making
a great uproar,rush furiously against each other . ’
How far the therefore,” which should connect
40
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom.
the social l i fe o f animals and of man, i s supported by
facts,has been shown in the preceding chapter . Even
in higher mammals individual s o f social communities
co - operate merely as far as their social instincts guided
by individual sensi le experience wi ll allow. In man ,however
,community l i fe is due to social instincts
as to i ts foundation only, but in i ts perfect development to the intel ligent, free self—determination of indi
viduals. Ziegler and Darwin are far from having
furni shed the proof, that the latter element occurs also
in higher animal s . O r do they perhaps think thatthe wars which hordes of apes wage against each other
contain thi s proof ? Let us see .
In the above descript ion it i s stated that the baboons
roll down stones at thei r enemies intentionally, and
thus , as i t were, use the stones as weapons , as e . g . ,
in 1809 the Tyrolese occasional ly did in their struggle
for l iberty against the French and Bavarians . But
regarding apes, the statement i s a myth . Pechuel
Loesche corrected the passage in the th ird edition of
Brehm’
s“Tierleben .
” “We are told,
” he writes,“that
apes defend themselves with broken branches , and i t
i s pretty general ly assumed that they hurl down on
thei r opponents stones , fru its , pieces o f woo d and other
obj ects . This bel ief i s probably due altogether toinaccurate observation.
1 I ts originators and abettorshave perhaps seen only, what they from various
1 ) We s incerel y regret that Mr . P echuel - Loesche was not al lowedto subj ect the 3d ed . o f B rehm
’
s“Tierleben, wh ich he revised, to a
thorough psycho logical revi sio n . A lthough several o f th e most o ff ensivepassages were correc ted or omitted, yet B rehm ’
s pecul iar style has not
changed ; he cannot po ssibly re f ra in f rom inten tional ly humani zmg the
brute. See a c ritic ism of th i s wo rk in “Natur und ~ O ff enbarung,”XXXVI I , 570.
42 Chapter II.
accounts supposed to be the fact,not what took place
in real ity . Apes l iving in trees,in wanton playfulness,
break o ff withered branches by j umping on them , by
snapping and shaking them but they do no t throw
them at a person who stands below . Nei ther do they
throw fruits or other obj ects which they hold in their
hands ; they rather drop them quite natural ly on being
frightened or put to fl ight . Moreover, baboons , among
which I was able to observe especial ly the tschakmas,
often watch ing hundreds of them very careful ly , never
think of throwing down stones from the i r rocky eleva
tions at their pursuers . It i s true , from the place where
they happen to be, stones sometimes rol l or fall down ,but merely by chance and also at t imes , when no enemy
is in s ight . Together with my wi fe, who
derived great pleasure from watching the behavior o f
the baboons,— they were often the only l iving beings ,
and very noisy at that,i n the rocky deserts of South
western A fr ica,— I have minutely studied their doings
precisely on thi s head to convince mysel f whether they
actual ly throw . They assuredly do not.
What l ight i s thrown by these crit ical obse rvations
o f Pechuel - Loesche on the “ individual intel l igence”
o f apes so highly prized by modern evolution ? Ligh t
enough , indeed, but extremely compromising for that
theory. In spite o f thei r highly developed brain , which
in anatomical structure bears the closest resemblance
to the human brain, apes are nevertheless unable to
draw even the simplest conclusi ons, which might lead
them to the use o f branches and stones as weapons .
The spider weaving its ingenious web to ensnare i ts
prey, or casting out s ilky th reads to entangl e i ts vic
44 Chapter II.
proved unsuccess ful . Even the most savage nationsemploy tool s and weapons o f various kinds in order
to catch thei r prey or to wage war against their foes .The paral le l drawn by D arwin and Ziegler between
the wars o f apes and o f savages proves to an unpreju
diced observer the very reverse o f what D arwin and
Ziegler intended to prove i t proves the essential difference between the merely sensi tive, psychic facul tiesof the highest vertebrates, and the spiri tual, mental
faculties of man.
2 . The Mi litary Expeditions of the Amazon Ant and
of the S anguine S lavemaker.
The wars of ants bear far greater resemblance to
human wars than those of the apes . Indeed, ants no
more than other animal s use any other weapons than
those furni shed by nature,namely thei r swordl ike
mandibles,thei r poison st ings and poi son syringes
,
but they use them in a manner which o f al l animal
combat s most resembles human strategy . Whoever
watched a mil itary expedition o f the red Amazon ants
(Po‘lyergus rufescens) or o f the sanguine slavemakers
l
will no longer entertain any doubts on the subj ect .The Amazon ants , th e European Polyergus rufescens
as well as the North American P . lucidus,2 advance
1 ) S ince the i s sue of the book, “Die zusammengesetzten Nesterund gem i sch ten Kolonien der Ame i sen I have had occas ion in
Lain z n ear V ienna to observe a number o f o ther P olyergus exped it ions ,and besides
,seve ral sangu inea exped ition s near V ienna and in L im
burg (Hol land) , etc .
2) Cal led by Mccook the“sh in ing slavemaker, whose habits he
observed n ear the A l legheny mountain s . There are sti l l th ree othersubspec ies ( race s) o f P . ruf escens f ound i n N . America, P . breviceps
Em., bi color Wasm. and mexi canus For .
Wars and Slavery in the Animal K ingdom. 45
on the war—path in large serried columns , the sanguine
slavemakers, however, the European as well as the
North American,3 in smaller, less serried detachments
both, but especially the Amazons, try to storm the
host i le nest by a fierce attack,and to stun the numeri
cal ly superior foe and to put him to fl ight by the
suddenness o f the onslaught . Great success general ly
attends these tactics . Forel , in h i s“Fourmis de la
S uisse” p . 306 , has severa l s imilar instances ,
some of which we wish to bring to the notice of the
reader. When Forel brought a bag containing awhole colony o f meadow ants (F. pratensis) , which
in s ize and strength surpas s the Amazons , into the
neighborhood of an Amazon nest,several o f the
Amazons at first dashed fiercely into the midst o f their
numberless enem i es ; twenty o f them were as a rule
suffi cient to rout fifty t imes that number of pratensis.
Another time an army o f Amazons j ust returning
from the pi llage of a s lave ne st were deposi ting their
spoil s of ant pupae in their nest, previous to setting
out on a new expedition , when Forel at a distance of
one meter from their nest and in the path of thei r
expedition emptied a large bag o f F. pratensis. In
three minutes th e whol e army of the Amazons had
encircled the hosti le camp appearing quite unex
pectedly. They stormed it in an instant,drove out
the pratensis and ransacked the nest for its cocoons— I
would l ike to hear of apes ever di splaying similar
mi l itary skill .
It i s characteri sti c of the mil itary tactics o f those
1 ) Formi ca rubi cunda and in tegra Em. are the principal N . American races o f the European Formi ca sanguinea.
46 Chapter II.
ant speci es which undertake slave hunting expeditions,to kill the hostil e ants only when resistance i s offered .
Fleeing F. fusca or rufibarbis are pursued merely to
obtain the larvae and pupae which they are carrying
o ff ; booty, not slaughter i s the obj ect of the victors .
I f apes or other higher animals were to act s imi larly
in thei r wars,then our modern advocates of evolution
would not fai l to make the fol lowing reflections :“Here we find the first t races of genuine humanity,
which shrinks from unnecessary bloodshed ; what
these animal s consciously aim at i s , not to fight, but
to gather the frui ts of victory,” etc . In ants such
reflections are readily granted to be ridiculous human
izations o f the brute ; but never would i t be conceded
in the case of apes,not because the psychic mani festa
t ions are real ly di ff erent, but rather to sa feguard the
evolut ioni st ic theories .
The mil itary ski ll o f the Amazons (Polyergus) i sno doubt unexcel led amongst ant s, but also amongst
other animals . It i s even far superior to the mili tary
tactics o f the sangu ine slavemaking ants , although the
latter mani fest in thei r whole character a more perfect
development o f what i s cal led “ individual intel l igence,”
i . e. , the sui table appl ication o f their sensitive experi
emees . But th e Amazons in private l i fe are the dul lest
and most awkward “instinct beings
” you can imagine .
A l though they are able to take l iquid food by l ickingj ust as other ants, they have nevertheless almost totally
lost the instinct o f feeding themselves,and would
starve , unless they be fed from the mouth of their
slaves . This fact makes it quite evident,that even in
the grandest mil itary exploits o f the Amazons there
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom. 47
enters not the sl ightest trace of genuine intel l igence,
but only inst inctive sens it ive faculti es ; for, an animal ,that even in a state o f utmost desti tution i s unable to
combine his feel ing of hunger with the perception of
nouri shment and the impulse to eat, can surely not
be credited with even the lowest degree o f delibera
tion.
“A being that is physically able to eat, but has
lost the habit of i t, is the greatest libel on animal intel
l igence.
Against thi s conclus ion Dr. Smal ian 2 has rai sed an
obj ection which we are now going to examine He
bel ieves our argumentation unsound ; and asks How
does Wasmann know that the Polyergus are at al l ableto feed ? The bas is o f hi s argument is in concluding
from the nature o f the eating organs the abil i ty to
eat. And he states , that he has once seen Polyergustaking food independently ; however, the matter i sdoubt ful ; for in the case o f animals which otherwise
never feed themselves but are always fed by others,
i t i s impossible to know,whether the food they
touched was actual ly consumed .
”
That Smal ian should make such an obj ect ion may
be explained only by assuming that he does not knowthe mode o f l i fe of Polyergus from actual observation ; otherwise he would hardly have been led to attack
our argumentation . Besides , he has not reproduced
in ful l the proofs which he controverts . Indeed,i t
was also from the anatomical structure o f the mouth
parts o f thi s ant that we drew the conclusion , that no
organic impossibil ity prevented the independent feed
1 )“D ie zusammengesetzten Nester und gemi schten K o lon ien der
Amei sen , p . 204.
2)“A ltes und Neues aus dem Leben der Amei sen, p. 42.
48 Chapter
ing of Polyergus. Our chief argument,however
,was
the biological fact, that the Amazons do really sometimes lap up l iquid food
,i f by chance i t comes in con
tact W ith the lower parts of their mouth . Dr. Smal
ian has undervalued th is fact . Not only once,but
repeatedly I saw and followed it up with a lens,how
some Amazon which had pierced an ant pupa with it s
mandibles , l icked up with her tongue the fluid flowing
from the wound,and sometimes spent a considerable
t ime in th i s occupat ion . Now , s ince the recept ion o f
food in ants general ly takes place by l icking,i t i s hard
to understand,why i t should be imposs ible to know
in thi s case,whether the food has “actual ly been con
sumed .
”
B es ides Dr. Smal ian has failed to notice Adlerz’
observations ment ioned in the very passage quoted by
him . Like mysel f, Adlerz has witnessed that the
Amazons frequently l ick up the moisture condensed on
the glass wal l s o f their artificial nest s . That Amazons
are able to feed independently i s , there fore , an estab
l ished fact which can not be'
done away with . \Vhy,
there fore,do they starve
,when they are confined in
a test tube together with some honey or some appetiz
ing ant pupae,but separated from their s laves by which
they are wont to be fed ? The only possible and psychologi cally correct answer i s because their hunger
does not compe l them ,l ike other animal s
, to seek for
food themselves, but only to beg food of other ants
by taps o f thei r feelers . The sensit ive percept ion o f
the food placed immediately before them , in spite o f
their feel ing of hunger does no longer excite in them
the natural imfi’
ulse o f tast ing i t . Wi th these ants
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom. 49
the instinct of independent quest of food and of i tsindependent reception has perfectly degenerated. They
have become utterly dependent on the ir slaves . Oncemore we ask D r. Smal ian and other friends of animal
intel l igence : I s i t possibl e that a being, which pos
sesses but a trace of intel l igence, should no longer be
able to combine the sensit ive perception of i ts proper
food with the feel ing of hunger ? Therefore we st il l
maintain : A being that is physically able to eat, but
has“unlearned
”the habi t of i t, is the greatest libel
on animal intelligence.
The bri ll iant mil itary talent of the Amaz’ons is ,there fore
,a merely instinctive power, which i s assisted
by no individual intell igence . Just the most wonderful
mani festations of the psychic l i fe o f animals, such as
to a superficial observer exhibit the most striking
resemblance to intell igence,upon closer inspection turn
out to be evident proofs of the want of individual
intel l igence in animals . The brighter the l ight , the
darker the shadows .
The sanguine slavemakers a ff ord us far better
ground than the Amazons for assuming, that in thei r
mil itary expedit ions ind ividual inte l l igence comes in
for a considerable share . Some scouts o f F. sanguinea
happening upon a nest o f some slave species returnwith the news . As soon as the favorable moment
for an expedit ion has arr ived , they go ahead showing
the Way. Upon arriving at the hostile nest they gener ~
al ly do not rush bl indly to the attack, but institute a
formal blockade ; then, whil st one detachment impet
uously forces its way to the interior, others keep a
careful watch on the outside and rel ieve the flying4
50 Chapter II.
inhabitants of their larvae and pupae,which are the
only obj ects the robbers have in view . On the parto f the sanguineas thi s shows great cunning and looks
very much l ike intell igence. I f a tr0 0 p o f .apes at
war with others were to surround the forest home o f
thei r foe and i f a sel ect squadron o f the assai lants were
to penetrate into the woods, whilst the other part lying
in ambush tried to capture the fugitives, how our
modern evolutionist s would be delighted with these
apes ! Such an argument - for animal intell igence the y
would deem absolutely irrefutable,and they would
no doubt al low this to be an “ intel l igent stratagem .
But sad to say,not apes but merely ants are ski l led in
such stratagems ; yes , ants whose brain“can by no
means compare with the brain of the higher animal s I"
I f the development o f the brain i s the real cause of
intel l igence,then, of course, apes ought to be at least
as intell igent as ants,or rather far more intell igent .
In real ity the reverse i s the case,and thus, things
look rather queer for modern evolut ioni sm .
Let us return to the mil itary tactics o f the sangu ineslavemaking ants . One characteri sti c feature, that o freconnoiter ing the nest they wish to plunder , they have
in common with the Amazons . With these latter ants,according to Forel ’s observations
,and my own,
s ingle
individual s are wont to set out to investigate the site
o f a slave n est, and thus frequently enable the whole
army o f Amazons to advance in serried columns over
a di stance o f thirty yards or more almost in a straight
l ine to the place they had marked out . This surpri sing
fact repeatedly observed by Forel and by mysel f can
not be explained in any other than the above -men
52 Chapter II.
individual s, they would surely show the prudence and
precaution o f previously exploring more accurately
the forces of the foe they want to attack . Thus, they
would not dare an assault upon stronger s lave nests,unti l a greater number of forces were col lected ; then
they would, l ike the Amazons, fal l upon the hostile
nest in compact masses of many hundreds or thousands
at a t ime,and would take the host il e posi tion by storm
without any considerabl e loss . Why does such a
change never occur in the tactics of the sanguine slave
makers ? A colony o f these robbers, which for many
success ive years has pil laged the slave nests of the
neighborhood and has experienced the di fferent resi st
ance o ff ered by di fferent hosti le colonies,could easily
remember their respect ive strength and could regulate
the manner of future attacks according to thi s knowl
edge . It would be al l the easier for them to make an
intel l igent use of their former achievements and
reverses , because the worker ants general ly l ive for
the space of at least two or even three years . And yet
not a trace of al l thi s can actually be found . F.
sanguinea will forever cl ing to her wonted tactics o f
setting out in small , scattered bands , even i f bloody
fai lure should ever so often be the result . To an
unprej udiced psychologi st such facts bear suffi cient
evidence of the fact that the warfare o f F . sanguinea
as wel l a s o f Polyergus i s gu ided merely by hereditary
instincts, not by individual intelligence. Those tactics
were not invented by the intel ligence of the ants;
otherwi se the same intell igence of the ants would be
able to perfect and to develop them . Yea more : the
assumption o f ant intel ligence i s contradictory to the
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom.53
fact that those tact ics are specifically constant, and are
specifically the same throughout the enti re territory
inhabited by F. sanguinea.
D r. Smallan has tried to inval idate th i s conclusion
al so . Here is hi s obj ection .
1 “I t was totally wrong o f
Wasmann to demand,2 that the sanguineas should
change thei r tactics , instead o f continually attacking
in sma l l tr0 0 ps and thus being easily overpowered by
large troops of fusca or rufibarbis. This mode o f war
fare i s inborn,and therefore inst inct ive, no less than
the pillaging habit itsel f.”
D r. Smal ian i s wrong in bel i eving that we had
in reali ty demanded of F. sanguinea to change her
hereditary,inst inct ive stratagems . Our demand was
merely the well known method of argumentation ex
absurdo, which the criti c seems to have misunderstood .
In the supposition assumed by Smal ian,but rejected
by us,that ants besides the ir inst inct possess al so a
certain degree of genuine intell igence,i t i s perfectly
j ust ifiable to demand that thi s intel l igence should also
be manifested and displayed. I f thei r tact ics are inborn
only as to their outl ines,thi s mani festat ion ought
necessari ly to consi st in changing them intel ligently
according to circumstances,and consequently in thei r
gradual perfection. But there i s no trace of any such
advancement towards perfect ion,and there fore we are
right in concluding : These red marauding ants have
only instinct,not intelligence. This mode o f argu
mentat ion cannot seriously be styled “ totally wrong .
”
Wherever the sanguine slavemakers l ive, they wil l
1 ) L . e . , p. 41 .
2)“Die zusammengesetzten Nester , etc . , p . 203.
54 Chapter I! .
fol low the hab it o f invading nests o f certain smal ler
species o f Formica, and of rearing the robbed worker
pupae,partly at least
,as auxi l iary ants for their own
colony. I t i s, moreover, a constant character i st ic of
F. sanguinea to have rather a small number of slaves ,i f compared with those o f the Amazons . .With these
latter the slaves are far more numerous than the
masters,with the former i t i s the reverse. Likewise,
the specific mil itary tact ics are everywhere equally
constant with both ant species . From the A lps to
England and Scandinavia, from Holland to the
Caucasus, F. sanguinea nowhere changes her habits
and customs . Even her North American sub- species
(rubicunda Em . ) shows the same inst inct o f slave
making,and this in the same specific form. The only
di ff erence i s,that one of the two European slave
species,F. fusca,
i s represented in the North American
rubicunda colonies by a closely al l ied variety, namely
by F. subscricea.
1 S ince the separation o f North
America from Europe was completed in the Tert iary
age,the enslaving habits of the sanguineas and their
mi l itary tactics must have been essentially the same in
the Tertia ry as they are today. This i s the most natural
explanation for the specific uni formity of that instinct
in the di ff erent part s of the globe . One thing, however
,i s certain : i f the impulse of slavemaking and the
specific mil itary tactics o f F. sanguinea were due to
the intell igence of the ants , or i f they were even in the
sl ightest degree dependent on it , such a specific uni
formi ty existing for thousands of years would be
utterly inconceivable.
1 ) See Wasmann ,
“K riti sche s Verzeichn iss der myrmekophi len und
t ermitoph ilen A rth ropoden” p . 163 E.
Wars and Slavery in the Animal K ingdom 0 55
3. The Pretended “Automatism in the Psychic
Life of Ants.
Animal intel l igence, there fore, has no part either
in the slavemaking expeditions of ants , or in their
mil itary tacti cs . Yet, the appl ication of these instincts
is not mathematica l ly uni form . They are influenced
and governed by the changeabl e sensitive perceptions
and individual condit ions of the s ingle ants , and thus
great variabil ity exi sts with in specified l imits . Those
animal psychologists who, in contradistinction to the
higher animal‘
s,call ants mere “
instinct automatons,”
or even mere “reflex machines,are asked to cons ider
that the inst incts o f ants are neither more nor less“automatic
” than those o f dogs, apes and other verte
brates . Instances o f‘
intell igence in the true sense o f
the term can be discovered with the latter as l i ttl e as,
and even much less than , with ants . Various diff er
ences, however, o f individual character , and of indi
vidual act ion,determined by di ff erent sense perceptions
and sense experiences , occur w ith ants as well as with
the higher mammals .
On turning over the stone or the piece o f sod
covering a middlesized nest of F. sanguinea,and thus
suddenly exposing the interior to the l ight , we perceive
al l the inhabitants in tumultuous excitement . Part ofthe ants furiously bit ing and ej ecting po i son attackthe invader ' others take care of thei r imperil l ed off
spring and i n haste carry down the eggs,larvae and
pupae to the lower chambers of the nest ; other indi
viduals o f the same colony seem dest itute of the
chivalrous spiri t of thei r race for the defens e of
56 Chapter 11 .
count ry and escape under sheltering grass tu fts orclods of earth ; sometimes, even , i n the midst of her
fighting, rescuing or fleeing comrades, a sanguinea
presses hersel f to the soi l motionless and , though
mostly for a short t ime, has recourse to the inst inctive
trick of “feigning death in opposition to these , other
sanguineas, finally,seem to be seized by a strange
mixture o f courage and fear, by a sort o f impotent
rage : not venturing to attack the real foe, they vent
thei r spite against other obj ects ; with sprawl ing feet
they crawl along the ground,and with thei r heads bent
down they furiously bite the sand or stalks o f heather,attacking everything, i n fact , but the finger of the
great human monster that robs thei r nes t o f Lome
chusas1 and other favorite guests . Such scenes as the
one j ust described I have observed hundreds of t imes ,and am so accustomed to them
,that I find them quite
natural ; neverthel ess , they are of the utmost import
ance for comparing the psy chic faculties o f ants and
tho se o f the higher an imals . Packs o f wolves or hordeso f apes on s imilar occasions could display no greater
variabil i ty o f individual character and o f individual
action,than such a colony o f sanguineas. Y et
,ants
,
we are told,are
“ instinct automatons ,”
and apes or
wolves are not !
1 ) In the co lon ies o f the North American subspec ie s o f sangui nea,
F . rubi cunda, the European L omechusa strumosa i s represen ted by an
al l ied spec ies , Xenodusa cava. Rev . H . Muckermann , S . of Prai r iedu Ch ien (W i scon sin ) has recen tl y f anud al so th e curious pseudogyn eant f o rm , wh ich i s due to the education o f the larvae o f L omechusin i
by the an ts , in the colon ies o f F . rubicunda. S‘
e e Wasmann ,
“NeueBestaet igungen der L omcchusa - P seudogyn en theorie
”(Verhandl . der
Deutsch . 2 0 0 1. Ge se l lsch . 1902 ,p . 98 - 108 and Pl . We shal l give
the fi gure o f Xenodusa later on, opposite p . 181 .
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom.57
A dog biting the stone thrown at him, in h i s bl ind
rage acts j ust as “ automatical ly” as a sanguinea which
vents her fury on the edges o f a glass tube , so that youcan hear the grat ing noise made by her j aws . And i f
certain individual s o f an ant colony acquire through
their sense - experience special dispositio ns and char
acteristics, which distinguish them from other individ
nals o f the same colony, then they act“automatically
"
as l i ttl e as dogs or apes , or other higher mammals do .
Some remarkable instances of this may find a place
here .
In the observation nest o f F. sanguinea described
on page 2 3, some beetles cal led D inardo dentata,which
I introduced,had at first been received as usual without
di ffi culty as indi ff erently tolerated guests,and had
even propagated in the nest . But several t imes I put in
a l ittle larger D inarda species (D . Maerkel i i ) , whose
usual host i s F. rufa, and when final ly some smal l
sanguineas and their slaves had succeeded in seizing
and kill ing this beetl e , which , as a rule , i s unassai lable
owing to its wedge - shaped body offering scarcely any
po int o f attack,1 then a number o f ants o f th i s colony
gradually took a l iking to catching D inardas, which
l iking proved disastrous also to the smal l er D inardo
dentata. Not al l the individual s of the di ff erent ant
species o f that colony have acquired thi s strange
pass ion . Among twelve workers o f F . sanguinea
which I put from this observation nest into a smaller
experimenting nest together with seven D inarda
1 ) See W asmann D i nardo -Arten ode r -Rassen ,
”in W ien . En tom .
Ztg.,1896 , 4th and 0 th i ssue , and
“D ie Myrmekoph il en und Te rm i
toph i len , p . 435 ( Extr. du Compte rendu du tro i sieme Congres in tern .
de Leyden ,
58 Chapter II.
Maerkelu, there was but one D inarda hunter. Whilst
the rest remained perfect ly pass ive towards the
D inardo, thi s one ant immediately began an active
hunt. Had I not soon removed her from the small
nest, she would probably have aroused in her com
panions the inst inct o f imitation for a similar persecu
t ion,a fact which I have often observed . But by
removing thi s pass ionate hunter,I preserved friendly
relations between the other ants in the same experi
menting nest ( 1 1 sanguineas, 2 rufibarbis, 2 fusca)
and the D inarda Maerkeli i . In the greater observation
nest, from which I had taken these individual s, theDinardo hunt, which had begun with the k i l l ing o f
D inardo Maerkeli i i n March 1896 , continued against
D . dentata unti l November o f the same year, when theants gradually returned
,but only for a short time, to
thei r former toleration o f these guests . The resuming
of experiments in the fol lowing spring resul ted finally
in the complete extermination o f all the D inardas in
that observation nest . During the following six years
I never succeeded in securing the existence of even a
single D . dentata in that nest , although in nature th i s
beetl e i s indi ff erently tolerated in al l sanguinea nests !
The psychologi cal importance o f these phenomena has
been pointed out already in our discussion on the
diff erent forms of l earning in the animal kingdom !
Another strange fact quite i rreconcilable with the
bl ind automati sm”o f instinct i s the behavior of ants
regarding the number o f D inardas and other beetles,
1 )“ Instinct and Intel l igence, etc . (Herder, St. Louis, Mo.,
p . 157 . A l so “Die psych i schen Faehigkeiten der Ame i sen” ( Stuttgart,pp. 84 , 88 , 93.
60 Chapter II .
the L omechusas as such, but merely toward thei rexcessive number, which became disagreeable to them .
Perhaps they were unable to feed so many beetle s andhad therefore expelled hal f o f them . A t any rate,such phenomena prove to a certainty that ants are
not to be regarded as mere in stinct automatons or“reflex machines .” We must ascribe to them sensile
mental facult ies,which by way of di ff erent percep
tions and representat ions cause great variabi l i ty in the
display of thei r instinctive impul ses . But , beyond th is,noth ing i s required to explain sat is factori ly the psychic
l i fe o f the vertebrates Hence , there i s no need o f“animal inte l l igence
,ne ither in the case of ants nor
in that o f the h igher animal s .
A beauti fu l instance of how sensil e experiences o f
ants lead them to acqu ire certain individual peculiar
ities o f character, I witnessed in the case o f a F. rufi
barbis o f the same mixed colony. She was a worker,eas i ly d ist ingu ishable from the others by her small s i ze .
She used to vis it regularly the glass bulb o f the feed
ing tube ( see diagram , p . where she would l ick
the honey or sugar in order to supply the other ants
in the main nest from the sweet j uice stored up in
her cr0 p . A lthough F. rufibarbis belongs to a very
irritable and pugnacious species , yet thi s ant had
gradual ly become so tame that she would al low her
sel f to be fed from my hand . As soon as I removed
the cork o f the glass bulb , she would come out and
look for food on the outside . I would then present
to her a needle dipped in honey. At first she darted
back,but after a few seconds o f hesi tat ion she would
approach,examine the needle with her feelers and
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom.61
l ick off the honey . Later on I placed the honey on my
finger . The ant had already become so tame that
she was not in the least di sturbed by the odor o f my
finger, whereas others would have been provoked to
a fight or would have been greatly alarmed . She
would quietly l ick off the honey and then , without
resi sting or trying to flee , allow hersel f to be seized
with a pincette by one o f her legs and placed back in
her nest . This goes to prove that ants also are tama
ble in Sp ite o f thei r excitable nature . The tamable
nes s o f ants,l ike that o f higher animals
,. is due to thei r
possessing the powers o f sens itive perception and imagination ,
upon which the intel l igence o f man acts to
accompl i sh his purpose .
Against th i s parallel i sm an obj ection was rai sed
by Mr. Bethe .1 To tame an ant,he says
,takes
weeks and month s ; but a dog may be tamed in a few
days ; therefore the above mentioned fact presents noproof o f the existence o f psychic facult ies in ants !
Whether Mr. Bethe wil l succeed each time in taming
a vicious dog within a few days , i s rather doubtful .
Nor i s i t at al l true, that it takes several weeks or
months to tame an ant , e . g ., a F. fusca or rufibarbis,
which are especial ly su itable for such experiments .
It i s but requi red to mark a certain individual which
comes regularly to the feeding tube . I f you are very
care ful not to frighten the animal,it i s possible to
train i t in a few days , in the manner described above .
But i f you wish to reckon the time needed for taming
an ant by beginning with the day on which she was
1 )“Duerfen wir den Amei sen und Bienen psych i sche Qual itaeten
zusch reiben ? ” (Bonn ,p. 23.
62 Chapter 11.
first deprived of her freedom and placed in the art i
ficial nest, then the same method of calculation must
be appl i ed in the case of the dog. Mr. Bethe should
not,therefore
,take for hi s experiments a domest icated
dog, but he would have to operate upon a newlycaptured animal o f the w i ld dog species . Then let
u s see,which would take longer
,to tame a wild dog
or to tame a wi ld ant !
There are several other interesting analogie s
between the psychic l i fe o f ants and that o f dogs .
A small dog, as long as he i s in the company o f his
master or of some stronger comrade, wil l not be afraid
to meet a rival , whom otherwise he would try to avoid .
Th e same is the case with the smal l black negro ants
(F. fusca) when they are in company with sanguineas.
In thei r own colonies they are general ly cowards .
As soon a s their nest i s d isturbed , they flee and try to
hide thei r young, but when they are slaves in colonies
of F. sanguinea, they are the bravest de fenders of th e
mixed colony, as I have often experienced to my cost .
Just as in the mixed colony of F. sanguinea the
instinctive courage o f F. fusca, which i s otherwise socowardly, i s to be explained psychological ly from their
perception o f the great number of val iant companions
and thei r consequent sense of sol idarity, without sup
posing any reasonable del iberation on thei r part , so
al so are the di ff erent degrees o f courage found in
different colonies o f the sanguine slavemakers to be
accounted for . I f a numerous popul ation inhabits a
rotten fir stump , on the surface o f wh ich we find some
o f the ants running about , a gentle kick will at once
cal l forth a whole army ready for the fray. In a
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom. 63
moment the whole surface o f the stump is covered
with thousands o f ants furiously hurrying to and f ro .
But, i f the colony i s weak, the same kick, which at
other times call s forth an army, will have th e con ~
trary effect . The ants which j ust before were running
about the surface,disappear through the entrances o f
the nest a s i f by magic, and deathl ike quiet succeeds .
I f in ants thi s appropriate est imation o f the strength
o f thei r own colony is characterized as instinct ive,and thi s i s
,no doubt
,the only correct expression
,
then,simi lar occurrences among higher animals should
also be credited to instinct and not to intell igence. 1
Yet, the courage of individual ants in a colony i sdependent not o nly on the perception o f the great
number and courage o f thei r comrades . In populous
colonies al so o f warlike species such as F. sanguinea ,
there wil l a lways appear considerable di ff erences in
individual courage , as we have shown above . Some
times even single,i solated individual s make head
against a numerous foe . Such an example o f hero
i sm” scarcely ever equaled by dogs , l ions , and tigers ,was once witnessed by Rothney
2 in Bengal . A mid
dle - s i zed worker o f a large black ant species (Cam
1 ) Fore l (Un apercu de Psycho logi e comparée p . 25 ) men
t ions an in stan ce , whe re a very stron g co lony o f Camponotus Iign i
perdus, when fightin g with F . pratensis, showed a more warl ike spi ritthan i s the custom with the ordinary co lon ie s o f that spec ies. We ful lyagree with Fore l i f he in f ers theref rom the existence o f plast ic ity”in th e psych ic faculties in ants . Our own observat ions ment ionedabove prove the very same . Yet, in considering th i s plastic ity o f the
sensit ive powers o f cogn ition and appetite to be essent ial ly ident ica lwith human intel l igence, he is en t i rel y wrong, as we have shown in a
f ormer publ icat ion,
“ Instinct and Intel l igence in the An imal K ingdom .
”
2)“Notes on Ind ian Ants, p. 349 (Transact. Entom. Soc. L on
don,
64 Chapter II.
ponotus compressus) attacked quite alone a whole
colony o f smal l red ants (S olenopsis geminata) .
Without moving from her place she remained before
the entrance o f the S olenopsis nest from p . m .
until n ight,seized the ants with her j aws as they came
out, and bit them in two . A t last she was ove rpowered
by superior numbers,and after having killed 1 50 or
2 0 0 o f her foes she paid for her temerity with her
l i fe . We leave it to the modern worshippers o f animal
intel l igence to rai se a monument to the memory o f
thi s insect Leonidas .
We need not, however, go as far as Bengal to find
such examples of “heroi sm”o f single ants . Th ere
are plenty o f them in the heath s o f Germany and
Holland,and al so in North America . During hot
weather stroll ing workers of sanguinea will frequently
enter into a fierce battle with colonies o f Lasius nigar
or Tetramorium caespitum l iving in the neighbo rhood ,t i l l at l ength , when too many of thei r opponents have
clung to their legs , they fal l vict ims o f thei r own fool
hardiness . A scene, more harmless indeed, yet psychologically not less remarkable, I observed near
Exaten on the afternoon of August 1 5, 1894. A large
worker o f F. sanguinea amused hersel f for a quarter
o f an hour by blockading all alone , a colony o f the
small,red stinging ants (Myrmica scabrinodis) . She
lurked about the entrance,seized by the neck one red
ant after another, as they came out, carried them quickly
to a di stance o f several inches,and dropped them in
order to be back again at once at the entrance to seize
the next customer . The Myrmicas scarcely attempted
any res istance, although several dozens of them were
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom.65
in and around the entrance . Only one or two tried toget hold o f the intruder by one o f her legs , but with
out success . O f course,thei r ho rny ( chit ine ) armor
protected them suff i ciently against the j aws o f the
sanguinea ; al l the more , as the latter did not allow
hersel f time to pay special attention to her single foes .
I t was exceedingly amusing to see the inde fat igable
zeal and hurry o f the large ant getting hold o f the
smal l ants one after another and carrying them away,after which they slowly crawled home again . It i s
hard indeed to say what induced the sanguinea to
engage in thi s odd kind o f ski rmish . Perhaps it wasme re love o f fighting . That she released the single
Myrmicas so soon , might be explained by her fear
o f th e sting,with which these ants are provided . Yet,
i t i s more probable, that the marauder took a fancy
to the entrance of the Myrmica nest, and on thi s
account tried to expropriate the inhabitants . O fcourse, her labor was no more successful than that o f
S i syphus, because she did not carry the ants further
than a few inches from the nest,and
,bes ides
,the
numbe r o f ants coming out of the nest had no end ‘
but thi s d id not seem to aff ect her in the leas t.
It would be ridiculous , arbitrari ly to humanize
such instances and to suppose al l possible k inds o f“intel l igent purposes” on the part o f the ant , as i s
customary with popular psychology. Yet, on the other
hand,i t cannot be denied , that mechanical autom
atism o f instinct will never explain them . The only
sati s factory solution psychology can give,i s to
ascribe to ants sensit ive powers o f cogn it ion and appe
ti te, which , under the influence of exterior sense per5
66 Chapter II.
ceptions and individual disposit ions , are the principle ,from which these various
,spontaneous activities resu lt
,
with no diff erence as to whether the actions are per
formed by ants,or by dogs and apes .
The phenomena described above may be classed
among the “sports” or “games” of an imals,as Groos 1
terms them . The facts recorded deserve these names
perhaps j ust as wel l as the sports and games of the
higher animal s ; only, i t i s general ly much more diflfi
cult to ascertain the nature of given facts in the case
o f ants . Among the heaps of ants that gather on the
surface of the ant - hill s o f F . rufa and pratensis, as al soin my artificial nest containing sanguineas when
exposed in spring to the warm rays o f the sun , I have
repeatedly observed instances o f harmless wrestl ing,
beginning with and accompanied by lively and playful
movements o f the feelers . Th i s behavior o f the ants
seems to be due to a resuscitat ion o f the i r powers andal so to an excess o f muscular energy a fter the winter ’s
rest.
Forel (Fourmis de l a Suisse p . 367) has mades imilar obse rvations with F. pratensis, and Huber 2 with
F. rufa and pratensis. I cannot consider these games
1 )“D ie Spiele der Tiere pp . 125 and 135 . By the way,
Groos h ere and e lsewhere was too confident in trust ing the authorityo f Buechner, who has not un f requently mi srepresented Huber ’ s and
Forel ’ s obse rvation s to suit h is own purposes of human i zing the brute .
Forel , in the E tudes myrméco logi ques, has expressly protested againstBuechner
’
s m i srepresen tat ion s o f his observat ion s . The book o f Grooscon tain s in gen eral a great many statements o f doubtful value
,in spite
o f the c r iti cal standpo in t f rom wh ich the author main tain s to view the
facts.2) S ince Hube r i n his
“Reche rches, p . 151 , does not say whetherhe mean s the f ourmi fauve d dos rouge or t h at d dos noi r
, we are
hardly able to dec ide wh ich an t i t i s.
68 Chapter II.
invention o f some colony o f sanguineas, transmitted
by inheritance to al l the descendants of the species .Forel , Emery and Smal ian ful ly agree with our tren
chant condemnation1 o f Buechner’
s manner o f human
izing the “slavery” o f ants . I t does not seem impos
s ible, however, that for the actuation o f thi s instinct
there should be needed special psychi c impulses pro
duced in the young ants by the example and the feeler
language o f thei r o lder companions . Yet , thi s assumpt ion i s scarcely probable ; for the formation o f new
colonies i s undertaken, as a general rule, by single
impregnated females ; but the females of F. sanguinea
are devoid o f the enslaving inst inct,and cannot , there
fore, induce others to mani fest i t. Y et,since i t i s the
general opinion, that tradi tion and instruction aid the
exercise o f the social instincts in these insects,and that
the high perfection of their community l i fe receives
thereby i ts ful l explanation,we wil l examine whether
in view o f the facts thi s Opinion i s sti l l tenable .
I t i s true,in ant communities the instinct of imi ta
tion plays a great part , as we may gather from several
observations recorded above . By the example and the
taps o f the feel ers o f thei r older comrades the younger
ants are o ften induced to actions , which otherwise ,at least under the same ci rcumstances , they would not
have performed . In thi s regard , as in fact in the other
sal ient features o f the psych ic l i fe o f animal s, ants and
the higher animals agree in al l the essent ial s ; for,in the latter al so the so - cal led lessons given to the
young by their parents consi st only in exciting inst inct
ively in the young the faculty of imitat ion by the exam
1)
“Die zusammengesetzten Nester, p. 182.
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom. 69
ple of their parents . I f we interpret tradit ion and
instruct ion” in this sense, i t must be acknowledged
that they aid in the exerci se o f the hereditary instincts
both in ants and in the higher animals . But , on the
other hand,i t i s equal ly obvio us
,that in thi s case the
terms “tradition” and instruction” mean something
very di ff erent from what modern animal psychologists
w ish to insinuate ; for , in our case , they do not imply
any intel ligent communicat ion o f knowledge, but onlythe inst inct ive excitation of the imi tative faculty .
But in the communities o f social insects not even
the encouraging exampl e of the older companions i s
necessary for the first actuation of the young workers
instincts. We have ascertained by experiments , that
preci sely the mo st remarkable and apparently most
intel l igent habits o f the sangu ine slavemakers,namely
thei r rearing o f slaves and the hospitable care bestowed
by them on the beetl e L omechusa strumosa, are merely
heredi tary instincts, for the exerci se o f which no kind
of“ instruction” on the part o f the older ants i s
needed .
1 To prove th i s we formed a spec ial colony of“sel f- taught” young workers o f F. sanguinea, by plac
ing in a glass fil led with a suffi cient quantity o f earth
a number o f ants that were newly developed from their
cocoons in my artificial nest . These sel f—taugh t ants
not onlv performed al l the works required for build ing
thei r nest, j ust as the other individual s o f thei r species ,but they al so fol lowed the very same l ine o f conduct
in nursing their young and even in deal ing with
strange worker pupae which I introduced into thei r
1 ) L. c. , p . 202, and“Die internationalen Bez ieh
’
ungen von L ame.
chusa strumosa,”in the B io logi sches Centralblatt,” X II 592.
70 Chapter II.
nest. The pupae of Lasius niger they would ei ther
devour or th row away, whereas those o f F. rufibarbis
were reared by them as auxil iary ants for thei r colony .
A L omechusa strumosa which I put in , was immedi
ately received l ike an o ld acquaintance,l icked and fed
,
j ust as i s the custom in the other colonies o f F. san
guinea. In the face o f such experiments the beauti fu l
theory o f tradition and instruction among ants van
i shes into th in air .
That the older ants lead thei r newly born com
rades about the nest and train them to a knowledgeo f domest i c dut ie s, especially in the care of larvae ,
"
i s a fable origi nated by Buechner1 and unfortunately
taken up on hi s authority even by Romanes 2 andother modern animal psychologi sts . The truth i s , that
the newly developed ants are as yet the obj ects o f spe
cial care and protect ion on the part o f the others,a s
remarked already by Huber . Being as yet rather help
l ess,they are st il l , as i t were, considered as wards.
”
The same applies to bee s . In the i r case al so theinstruction said to be given by the old workers i s amere fancy, ari sing in the brain o f some anthropomor
ph izing observer . A l ready Réaumur i n h i s classical
work H istoire des Insectes3 remarks : “Scarce ly have
al l the parts o f the body o f a young bee become su f
ficiently dry, scarcely is she able to move her wings,when she i s al ready acquainted with everyth ing she
will have to do in the whole course o f her l i fe Hegoes on to relate a few observat ions showing
,that
1 )“Ge i ste sleben der Tiere, p . 62 .
2 )“An imal Inte l l igence” ( 6 th p . 59.
Tom. V. part I I, mem. X I, p . 278. Amsterdam, 1741 .
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom. 71
young bees from the very first day are as wel l able to
use the i r inst incts as are thei r seniors . O f late someexperiments have been made by K ogevnikov
1 and
Butkew itsch 2 on se l f- taught young bees . The result s
were practical ly the same as in the case o f the sel f
taught ants . I t was found that in the workers the
bui lding o f combs and the nursing o f the young, and
in the queens the love o f combat were hereditary
instincts,utterly independent o f experience and instruc
t ion . Besides Charles Janet ’ s excel lent observations
on hornets3 show ,that social insect s are ruled only by
hereditary instincts,excited to thei r natural mani fes
tation by the very first experiences o f the young ind ividual . The impulse o f imitat ion with i ts various
incitements i s only a secondary factor. This i s the
truth regarding the captions Sh ibboleth o f“ instruct ion
and tradit ion” i n insect communities .
No doubt , therefore , i s l eft as to the fact that the
slavemaking habits and the mil itary tact ics o f th e san
guineas, j ust as the social l i fe o f ants in general , are
due to instinct only, not to individual intel ligence.
Yet, thi s instinct i s not an absolutely bl ind impulse ,but i s su itably modified according to the wants and
purposes o f a given colony. A blind impulse to rob
and to rear slave pupae would be expected to impel
sanguinea colonies to rob the more slaves , the stronger
and more numerous they are themselves . In the most
populous nests we ought to find the greatest number
1 )“Zur Frage vom Inst inct, in B iolog. Vol . XV INo . 18, pp . 657 - 660.
2)“Russi sches B ienenzuch tblatt
,Apri l ,1896 . See K ogevn ikov l . c.
“Mémo i res de la Société Zoo logique de Fran ce.
” T. VI I I
72 Chapter II.
o f auxi l iary ants . In real ity the very reverse happens.
The most populous sanguinea colonies do not conta in
the relatively greatest but the relatively smallest num
ber o f s laves . We formerly ( in“D ie Zusammengesetz
ten Nester” p . 50 ) alluded to th is fact, which shal l nowbe explained and proved at greater length . In order
to show the connection between the rearing o f Lome
ekusa strumosa in the sanguinea nests and the educa
tion o f a strange,crippled kind of workers, the
so- ca l led pseudo - females or pseudogynes,1 I drew up
an accurate stati st ical map o f the sanguinea colonies
in the neighborhood o f Exaten. I t comprises 4 1 0
colonies w ith more than nests .2 Regarding the
number o f slaves,the statist ics showed that in most
colonies the masters were from three to six times more
numerou s than the slaves . The most populous colon ie s
contain scarcely 50 to 1 0 0 slaves, sometimes even less
or none at al l . In the middle - s ized or weaker colonies,however, the absolute number o f slaves amounts in
most cases to several hundred . The average propor
tion of masters and slaves in the most populous
colonies i s from 1 0 0 : I to in the middle - s ized
and weak colonies , however , from to Nor
are these the ultimate l imits assigned to the number
o f slaves found in the nests o f these ants . In May,
1890 ,and from 1896 to 1898 I found near Exaten
several strong sanguinea colonies without any slaves .3
1 )“D i e ergatogynen Fo rmen bei den Amei sen und ihre E rklae
run g,” in “B io log. Vol . XV Nos. 1 6 and 17.
2) A colon y o f F . sanguinea not un f requently emb races severalnests , o f ten one or more metres di stan t f rom one another, inhabitedal l at the same t ime or alternatel y.
3) To sim i lar colon ies o f F . sanguinea of th e race rubi cunda in
No rth America we must pro bably re f er the F . sanguinea race aserva
o f Fo re l , who desc ribed i t latel y f rom To ronto ( Canada) , (Ann . Soc .
En t. Belg. XLV , 1901 , p.
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom. 73
A s imilar colony I recently detected near Luxemburg,1904. On May 2 3, 1889, I met with the Opposite
extreme, namely, a very weak sanguinea colony, in
which the slaves were about twenty times more
numerous than their masters . These extreme cases
are, however, very rare . Besides , i t i s p lain that the
number o f slaves in di ff erent colonies changes every
year ; and lastly, the number of slaves in the nests o f
the sanguine slavemakers depends al so on special ,local circumstances . Where sl ave nests are very
numerous, e . g . , in groves o f birches and oaks , there
more slaves w ill be found in the sanguinea nests than
on the open heath , where fusca nests are very scarce.Yet, ceteris pa-
ribas, we find the constant law,that in a
given sanguinea nest, the number of slaves and that o f
masters i s not in direct but in inverse proportion . Myobservations o f sanguinea nests in Dutch Limburg,Rhineland, Vorarlberg, Bohemia and Luxemburg,everywhere confirmed thi s law .
How is thi s remarkable diff erence between the colonies o f sanguineus and o f Amazons to be explained ?
The latter possess the more slaves , the more populous
th e colony ; with the former we meet the reverse . This
di fference i s explained by the fact that F . sanguinea
i s not, l ike the Amazons, essentially dependent on herslaves , but rather regards them , as it were, as a
secondary complement o f her own communit ies . The
sanguineas rob and rear only as many slave pupae , as
i s suitabl e for their colonies . Weaker colonies thus
feel greater need of supplementing their own deficiency
by adding auxil iary forces,whereas stronger colonies
do not feel the same necessity ; so they regulate their
74 Chapter II.
act ion according to thei r perception of th i s deficiency.
I t i s true, the smaller number o f slaves in more popu
lou s sanguinea nests may partly be due to another
ci rcumstance , viz . , that in the latter a greater per
centage of robbed pupae i s eaten than in smaller nests .
Nevertheless, thi s ci rcumstance i s far from explaining,why in the weakest colonies o f this maraudi ng ant the
number o f slaves even exceeds that o f the masters.
The only way of accounting for th is fact i s to assume
that these colonies try to strengthen their forces by
the greatest possible number of auxi l iaries .
TO perceive th is necessity of increasing theirnumbers does not go beyond the l imits of the
instinct ive powers o f ants . A very interesting case of
thi s kind was Observed by me both in the summer and
the fal l o f 1898 in my art ificial nest Of F. sanguinea,
already repeatedl y referred to . D uring my absence ,extending over several weeks of July and August,, the
nest had been badly cared for and had repeatedly dri ed
up ; consequently many workers o f sanguinea and the
greater number of the old slaves had perished . Mean
whil e new auxil iary ants (F. rufibarbis) had beenreared from cocoons which I had given to the
sanguineas. Now , I observed in the course o f Sep
tember,that new clusters of eggs, laid by the two
queens,made their appearance in the nest , and that a
number of larvae were reared, some o f which were
conspicuous for thei r rapid development . This i s an
exceptional case , general ly not occurring in sangui nea
colonies during autumn . In October and the first part
o f November I was absent again . On my return Ifound
,to my great surprise, that in place of the two
76 Chapter II.
adopting strangers as auxi liaries. O f course, they arefar from having an intell igent knowledge of this pur
pose. It suffi ces that, on account of the actual need o f
workers,the instinct ive impul se of the ants to bring up
fresh workers i s aroused with greater intensity and ,for th i s reason , extends to other Formi ca cocoons .
And thi s i s the only explanation adm i s sibl e, for we
have proved above, that with F. sanguinea sl ave
holding i s not due to experience or instruction,but to
hereditary instincts .
I s there anything in the social l i fe of h igher
n imals,which can rival thi s strange phenomenon ?
We know of nothing. I f there had been , then D arwin ,Ziegler and other evolutioni sts would not have fai led
to turn it to account,and to appeal to i t as convincing
proof of the “quasi - human intell igence” o f higher
animal s ; for , i f an associat ion of animal s perceives
the necess ity Of increasing its strength by adopting
auxil iary forces,and under the influence of th is per
ception actually adopts them , then this action proceeds
from a motive originating in sensit ive experience , and
is therefore intel ligent, at least according to modern
animal psychology. Nevertheless , ants are sai d to be“ instinct automatons ,
” but higher animal s are not !
And this again shows , how utterly untenable , on the
one hand , i s the modern notion o f intell igence,and
,
on the other,how fool i sh the attempt to place the
“ intel l igence” o f the h igher animal s on a far higher
level than that of ants .
Bethe,
1 indeed , has o f late made an attempt to
explain,in a very simple manner, the proportion
1 )“Duerf en wi r den Ame i sen und Bienen psych i sche Qual itaeten
zusch re iben ?” p. 69 .
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom. 77
between the number Of masters and of slaves found
in colonies of F. sanguinea.
“The correlat ion,” he
says,“existing between the numbers of masters and
slaves i s as l i ttle owing to psychic processes, as the
numerical correlation exist ing between mice andbuzzards
,or between certain butterfl ies and cuckoos .
Yet, i t i s hard to see what i s proved by thi s compari
son, unless it be the very contrary of what Bethe
pretends to prove ; for the more mice there are , the
more buzzards wil l come to the spot , and the more
butterfl i es,the more cuckoos however, in the case o f
sanguinea colonies j ust the reverse takes place , namely,the more masters there are
,the fewer slaves they have
in thei r colonies !
As the sanguineas accommodate themselves to
given circumstances regarding the number of thei r
slaves,so al so regarding thei r species. Thei r favorite
slave species i s F. fusca. This black ant i s found as
auxil iary in the greater number of the above mentioned 4 1 0 sanguinea colonies near Exaten . In 2 5colonies the place of F. fusca i s taken by a di ff erentspecies
,viz F. rufibarbis ; 1 7 colonies have both
species . Near Feldkirch , in Vorarlberg (Austria) , I
found side by side with colonies which had the above
mentioned slaves,others with F. cinerea
,or with F.
fusca and cinerea. The latter species does not occur in
Dutch Limburg, and for th i s reason no cinereas are
found there as slaves in sanguinea nests . Yet , the fact
that the sanguineas occasional ly invade weak colonies
o f the large hil l ants (F. rufa and pratensis) to robtheir pupae and to rear them as auxil iaries , proves
that thei r “bl ind instinct” does not force them to rob
78 Chapter II.
automatically a certain, fixed species of slaves . In
May, 1890 , I found near Exaten such a“natural,
abnormally mixed” sanguinea colony containing,besides F. fusca, a considerabl e number of F. rufa.
This colony has s ince disappeared ; for on my return
after a two years’ absence I looked for i t in vain.
S ince 1895 I found in the same neighbo rhoo d o f
Exaten four other natural , abnormally mixed colonies
o f sanguineas. One o f them ( col . NO. 66 ) had onlyF. pratensis as slaves ; the second ( col . No . 1 0 5)F. rufo-pratensis, a variety intermediate between rufaand pratensis, with F. fusca ; the other two had (col .Nos . 84 and 2 47) F. pratensis and fusca. Three of
these colonies, there fore, possess besides the ordinary
specie s of s laves,an extraordinary one. In August,
189 1 , I came on the Arlberg pass m . ) across asanguinea colony that had rufas as slaves . Forel 1 haslong since recorded some
'
very interesting instances ofnatural , abnormally mixed colonies of these marauding
ants in Switzerland, namely a sanguinea nest with
F. pratensis as slaves , and another w ith rufa. The
sanguineas therefore di splay the same pecul iar uni
versal ity and the same gi ft o f suitable adaptat ion i n
thei r enslaving habits both in Hol land, and in Tyroland Switzerland ; those qual it ies are due to that
specific nature o f thei r sensi tive cognit ion and appetite,which we call “instinct .”
The above observations on these natural,mixed
colonies have made it plain enough , why the son
guineas accept the worker pupae of diff erent,al ien
1 )“E tudes myrmécologi ques en 1875, p. 25 (57) and en 1886 ,
p. 9
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom. 79
Formica species and rear them as slaves even whenthey are given to them by man . Forel 1 and mysel f
have made var ious experiments on th is point
with artificial observation nests kept in a room and
with nests found in free nature . It may suffi ce to
mention one of them . In the summer o f 1895, several
t imes in succession I took a large bag of worker
cocoons from a huge ant hil l of F. rufa and emptied i tin the neighborhood o f a den sely populated sanguinea
nest,
2 which had but a few fuscas as slaves . In a fewminutes the sanguine ants had put to fl ight the thousands
of rufas contained in the bag with the cocoons and part sof the nest
,had snatched the cocoons from the mouths
of the fl ee ing rufas and began to ransack whatever Ihad brought of the hostil e nest For hours after, hun
dreds of these white “ant—eggs were seen wanderingfrom the plundered nest to the den o f the - robbers and
mysteriously disappearing therein . By far the greater
number of the rufa cocoons were reared by the sanguineas . This art ificial ly mixed colony numbered, in
1896 , about sanguineas and rufas. The
latter were generally busy building on the surface o f
the nest and had soon given i t the appearance o f a
true rufa nest . At the least di sturbance, however,thousands of l ight - red sanguineas would dart out from
the inter ior to defend their common home ; and thus
the supposed rufa nest was turned into a sanguinea
nest as i f by magi c . Because ants know no other home
than that in which they have deve loped from the
cocoon , these rufas, although they are in the majority,
1 )“Fourmi s de la Sui sse , p . 258 ff .
Colony No. 39 of the stat i st ical map .
80 Chapter II.
will faithful ly serve their ravi shers and natural ene
mies,without reflecting” on how they happened to get
into thi s unusual society .
I have had in my room,for the last twelve years ,
an art ificial nest Of F. sanguinea ( see p . This
colony adopted as slaves the workers Of al l the Formica
species to be found in Holland, viz . , F . fusca, rufi
barbis, rufa and pratensis. The “ slaves” have devel
Oped from cocoon s,which I had put into the nest
during recent years . In free nature the same Formica
species are found as slaves in the sanguinea nests ,but only one or two of them at a t ime ; in thi s nest ,however, they were al l united to form one colony
under the suzerainty Of Formica sanguinea.
Yet , thi s“suzerainty
” and “slavery
” i n the mixed
colonies o f ants i s altogether di ff erent from what the
same terms imply when applied to human society.
Only authors l ike Ludwig Buechner might be foundguilty o f confounding ideas to such a degree . There
i s perfect equali ty among all the workers o f a mixedcolony, no le ss than among al l the workers o f a
simple colony . The very same const itutional laws”
are in force both for masters and slaves ; in otherwords
,the uni form “nest smel l ,
” which adheres to al l
ants reared in the same nest , serves them to recognize
one another as members o f the same ant community,the diff erences in species being total ly di sregarded .
The so—cal led slaves l ive enti rely free in the nest o f
thei r ravishers,that i s to say, they l ive according to
the same innate instincts which would have formed
their ru le o f conduct at home ; they work for th ei r
ravishers, supply them with food and rear thei r Off
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom. 81
spring, as i f they were in their own colony. They are
cal led “slaves,
” only because they are reared from
robbed pupae,l ive in the nest s o f strangers and work
for them . On the other hand the sanguineas are
cal led “masters, only for the reason that they have
robbed the pupae of an al ien species, from which
thei r auxiliaries originate ; and besides , because these
mixed colonies contain not workers only o f F. san
guinea, but al so thei r males and femal es , whereas
the slave species i s represented only by workers . Thisi s why in mixed co lonies the propagat ion o f the
masters i s ensured but not that o f the slaves .
There fore i t i s downright nonsense for Buechner
to place slavery among ants and human slavery on
essential ly the same level . By Virtue o f hi s intell i
gence,man possesses the power o f reflecting on his
origin and social position ; he i s gi fted with selfconsciousness ; accordingly he considers slavery as an
unjust ified deprivation of freedom,a state o f humil ia
t ion,a degradation o f hi s human dignity . With ants
i t i s diff erent . They have neither intel lect nor sel f
consciousness, and are thus incapable of pondering
over the obscure question “whence and “whither .
As auxil iary ants they fol low thei r social instinctsj ust as well as in a nest o f their own species : they
are as free and independent a s any other ant on
earth . Hence among slave ants there are no run
aways,no revolutioni sts
,no conspirators , no anarch
ists. He , who seriously points to the complete social
i sm and communism o f mixed ant colonies as model s
for human social i sm and political economy, i s sadly
in need of a nerve special i s t.6
82 Chapter II.
On the other hand, in opposition to those animalp sychologists who rank the “mental faculties” o f the
higher: vertebrates incomparably above those o f ants,i t i s necessary to emphasize the fact
,that no associa
t ion of apes or other mammal s can compare , as to
psychic faculti es,with the mixed colonies o f ants,
especial ly with the sanguinea colonies . The rearing
of the O ff spring Of closely al l ied species as use ful
members o f thei r own society i s an arrangement never
found with apes . The wars , therefore , and mil itary
expeditions o f ants addicted to thi s practice rank
much higher than the wars o f baboons and other apes .True
,sl avery among ant s i s based only on inst inct ,
not on intell igence . But anything higher than instinct
i s not found in the societies of higher animal s either
In fact,the development o f thei r soc ial inst incts i s
rather far in ferior to th at o f ants .
5 . Other Wars and Alliances of Ants.
The slavemaking expeditions of the Amazons and
sanguineas are indeed the most interest ing ; but by no
means the only wars waged by ants . There are many
other feuds and skirm ishes , both between ants o f di f
ferent species and between di ff erent colonies o f the
same species . Most o f these feuds are caused by di s
putes about subterranean or Open - ai r boundaries,cal l
ing for settlement “at the point o f the sword .
” When
underneath a large stone there i s a “compound ant
nest,” i . e. , when two or more di ff erent species have
built thei r respect ive nests in close proximity,they are
separated by wall s o f earth . No one ventures into
the neighboring realm,and woe to him,
i f he does ;
84 Chapter II.
a sandy road near Exaten . It fai rly swarmed with
fighti ng lawn - ants .'
The combatants numbered thou
sands and they covered a space of about 70 cm . by
8 cm . So dense was th e battle - array that individual s
could scarcely be di st inguished in the mass o f war
riors . They formed i rregular clusters o f from 2 to 14
individual s al l cl inging together with the i r mandibles
and making l iberal use of ‘
their stings . Th e summer
heat had inflamed the rancor o f the two tribes , longl iving too close together. The battl e probably ended
with the expulsion or the utter extermination of one
of the communities .
Among men civi l wars are general ly th e fiercest
and bloodiest . The same may be said o f th e wars
waged between di ff erent ant colonies o f the same
speci es . However,only the “heat oppressed brain” o f
Buechner or Brehm could detect a closer analogy
between these phenomena . As the males o f certain
bi rds fight for their breeding districts, nor al low
other famil ies o f the same species to settle there! so
ant colonies are wisely compelled by the laws of nature
to regard the di strict about thei r nest as exclusively
thei r own, on which no other colonies o f the same
species are su ff ered to encroach . Otherwise , theirwants being equal , thei r food suppl ies would become
scarce . Hence ari ses an instinctive hatred between
di ff erent colonies o f the same species ; whereas col
onies of different species whose mode of l i fe and
me ans o f sustenance are di fferent are admitted much
more easily. The preservation o f the species neces
sitates the fiercest struggles for exi stence between
1) Al tum, D er Vogel und se in Leben,” (6th p. 128 3 .
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom. 85
t ribes of the same species . Not inord inate greed in
the individuals nor imperial i st i c tendencie s in the tribe,but higher, natural laws are the mainsprings Of these
civi l wars” among ants . The poet“
indeed, may
exclaim :“There i s room on earth for al l” ( Schil ler )
but even in the l i fe o f ants this beauti fu l saying i soften correct only in theory .
Many more accounts o f wars and battles among
ants could be mentioned ; but we cannot enter upon
them here, s ince our principal purpose i s to cal l atten
t ion to a few points of comparison between th e “ intel
l igence” o i ants and that o f higher animal s and o f
man . I t remains only to be stated that the wars o fants sometimes end in an “
alliance,” that i s to say in
a peaceful union o f the combatant tr ibes into one con
stitutional body. These al l iances are usually formed
between Formicas O f the same or di ff erent species ,but are most frequent between di ff erent colonies of
sanguineas. From Forel ’s “Fourmis de la Suisse”
and from my own observations ( see D ie zusammen
gesetzten Nester p . 146- 1 57) many instances might be
selected . The chief conditions for such al l iances
between host i l e ant colonies are,that the two oppo
nents be closely all ied in species , that they be almost
equal ly populous,and lastly that they be forced to
l ive in close proximity and are thus unable to avoid
each other . Unde r such circumstances their original
skirmi shes gi ve way to mutual toleration and finally
to friendly intercourse . A superficial Observer, o f
such occurrences,might be led to bel ieve that intell i
gent reflection had caused the animal s to overcome
thei r instinctive aversion . He might conclude that
86 Chapter 11 .
ants reason thus : Why this useless shedding o f
blood ? Let us not exterminate each other but l ive in
peace ; our di ff erences are not so great that we can
not come to terms !” Yet,there i s not a shadow o f
proo f that ants entering into an al l iance reason in thi s
manner . The phenomenon,wh ich i s indeed singular
enough,can be explained more simply and natural ly
from the laws of instinctive sensation , with special
regard to the feeler sensations . Especially with the
Formica species , and among these, mo st o f al l with
the h ighly endowed F. sanguinea, the hereditary dis
posit ion o f the sensit ive powers o f cognition and appe
t i te i s so plastic, that with part ies of almost equal
numbers fear wil l be stronger in such cases than
love o f combat . First, o f course, by tapping one
another with their feelers they find out that they are
st rangers,and therefore they try to avoid each other ;
but i f th is. i s impossible,the perception o f mutual
similari ty wi ll gradual ly prevai l over th ei r mutual di f
ference . In the beginning, they l ive together from
necessi ty only, but they gradual ly acqu ire a common
nest- smell which unite s them as members o f one
colony. From th i s t ime,by taps o f thei r feelers , they
recognize one another as belonging to the same house
hold . The former opponents have united into one
consti tutional body” which i s kept together by the
common nest - smel l . S trange though thi s mode o f
communication may appear to us who are not pro
vided with antennae , i t alone explains the fact other
wise whol ly inexpl icable,how the confederate colony
thu s formed wil l in future hold together even against
former members o f thei r own colony.
1 An example1 ) On the explanat ion o f the nest- smel l see above p . 16 if .
88 Chapter II.
had any idea of consanguinity, then this behavior o fthe o ld pratensis of th at confederate colony during the
maltreating o f thei r s isters would be altogether inex
plicable . On the other hand, the inst inctive natureo f ant sensation will furnish a very sati s factory expla
nation o f th is phenomenon , which i s in evident con
tradiction with animal intel l igence . Yet, i t should
not be forgotten, that societi es o f apes and other
higher anima l s have nothing to compare with the confederacies of ants . No one has as yet Observed , that
wars carried on between different hordes o f apes
ended with a peace ful al l iance between the combatants .
Thi s clearly shows,how wrong i t i s to exalt the
societies o f higher animal s above those o f ants in the
matter of psychic endowments .
Evolutioni sts,therefore, such as Darwin and Zieg
ler,are sadly mistaken when they point to the battles
sometimes waged between hordes o f apes , and adduce
these as conclusive evidence , that the societies o f
h igher animals are so closely al l ied to the “primitive
societie s o f man, that a l ittle, unimpo rtant“step”
bridges the di ff erence ; for first they imagine a“primit ive state” of human society , which i s depicted ,o f course , as brutal and as devoid o f reason as
possible ; then , to match the picture , they exalt the
societies o f higher animal s to the greatest possible
s imilari ty with reasonable man , and final ly,from this
twofold hypothesis they draw the conclu sion that
human society has evidently developed from the ani
mal societ i es . And thi s i s cal led the “consi stent,
scientific appl ication of the theory o f evolution to
man !” I f ants were endowed with reason and ri s i
Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom.89
bi l itv, they would surely burst into a hearty laugh at
these evolut ionistic “ steps” ; for, as to the develop
ment o f social instincts, ant colonies bear a far closer
resemblance to th e human societies than the hordes of
apes ; and yet even the intel l igence o f an ant would
be suffi cient to understand, that animal and human
societ ies are as far apart as heaven and earth . The
di ff erence between ant states and human societies i s
readi ly acknowledged ; but the di ff erence between
hordes o f apes and the primitive states o f man cannot
be conceded, because , forsooth , it i s against the theory
of evolut ion !
CHAPTER I I I .
ARCH ITECTURE IN TH E A N IMAL K INGDOM .
1 . A General S urvey of the Bui lding A ctivity ofAnimals.
HE houses o f animals are exceedingly simple and
dest ined for very prosaic purposes ; they merely
serve the wants o f dai ly l i fe , th e preservation Of the
individual and of the species . To the ir owners theyare necessary helps in the struggle for existence ; they
never a im at a rt for art ’s sake .1 This clearly shows,
that in the animal kingdom we can speak only meta
phorical ly Of architecture properly so called . There
i s mere mechanical ski l l , but not art ; and i f some
t imes it s product ions bear a faint resemblance to works
o f human art , the aesthet ic e ff ect i s never e ither intended
or understood by the animal . Another essential point o f
diff erence between the artist ic ski l l o f animal s and of
man i s in this , that with animal s i t i s due to an innate,heredi tary aptitude which has not first to be acquired,as is the case w ith man . At it s bi rth the animal i s
endowed with al l i t s arti st ic talents . I t appl ies them
without previous experience or i nstruction, as soon as
demanded by i ts organic development and by external
c ircumstances . The caterpi l lar o f the emperor moth
Saturnia) begins to be an art i st on ly , when the t ime
has arrived to trans form itsel f into a ch rysal i s, and to
weave a bo ttle - shaped case wherein i t i s to undergo
1 ) The bui ldings o f the Austral ian Tectonarchinae are no except ionto th is rule. i f we d ivest description s o f them o f all poet ical additions.
90
92 Chapter III.
The buildings of animal s either serve to shelter
the indivi dual , or e l se they are places for breeding
and rearing the young. To the former class belong
the tunnel s excavated in the earth by the serpulas,the
envelopes made o f various substances by the moth
caterpi llars and the larvae of the may - fl ies, as al so
the di ff erent casings constructed by the larvae o f
insects,particularly o f many butterfly
- caterpi llars
before thei r metamo rphosi s . To the latter class
belong the regular nest constructions o f animals . The
most primit ive specimens are found with the paras iti c
N emertine worms .1 In several orders o f insects,
especia lly among the Hymenoptera2 and the beet les
,
we meet with instances o f ingenious and manifold
development o f the same art . Here we find the most
various forms of nests , and made o f all kinds of
material . Those elegant l ittl e domes o f mortar, the
wasps o f the genus E umenes have built for thei r
Off spring. Th ose breeding burrows,l ined with red
poppy blossoms , have been‘
excavated by the so - cal led
rose—bee (M egachi le) . Those grace ful funnel s and
barrel s o f leaves have been rol led into shape for thei r
young by weevi l s (Rhynch i tes, Apoderus, A ttelabus) .
And that boat adorned with streamers has been spun
by the great water- beetle (Hydrophilus piceus) , as areceptacl e for its eggs . Amo ng fishes nest bui lding i s
rare . We find examples o f i t,i n the stickleback (Gas
terosteus aculeatus) , and in other fishes provided with
spines . On the other hand,birds are unsurpassed in
the art o f nest building as regards variety,both of
1 ) See“Natur fo rscher ,” 1886 ,
19th year, No . 50 , p . 494.
2) See especial ly J. H . Fabre, Souven i rs Entomologiques,” who
has desc ribed these bui ldings with admi rab le ski l l.
Arch itecture in the Animal Kingdom. 93
form and o f the material u sed by di ff erent species .With the mammals! finally
,nest constructions are
,on
the average , far les s compl icated and artistic than with
birds and insects .
The bu ildings which serve to shelter and rear the
young, may l ikewise be used as permanent lodgings
for parents and off spring. This i s the case with social
insects and many mammal s . Thus the nest develops
into a fami ly dwelling. Only in relatively rareinstances , do animals employ their bui lding ski l l in
providing other necessaries o f l i fe . Many spiders spin
thei r webs not only as a hid ing- place for themselves
or fo-r breeding purposes,but they also , by means of
thei r spinning glands,manufacture nets wherewith
to catch thei r prey. In l ike manner the neuropterous
larva,which goes by the name o f ant - l ion, uses its
earth - funnel both as a dwell ing place and as a trap for
catching its prey,which consists chiefly of ants or
other insects . Among ants, however , we find the most
varied and mani fol d appl ication o f natural architec
tural ski l l.
2 . The N ests of Ants.
In the first place,ants use thei r architectural talents
for bui lding nests, i n the strict sense o f the word .
Everybody is more or l ess famil iar with ant ne sts , but
few are aware of the immense variety o f forms impl ied
in that apparently simple term . As there i s scarcely
any material unfit for an ant nest , so i t may assume
all possibl e shapes and be found in the mo st unl ikely
1 ) We shal l consider more in detai l the buildings of the beavers inthe subsequent pages.
94 Chapter III.
l ocal i ties . Here i t i s the size o f a thimble, there, the
pyramids o f the ancient Egyptians are l ike mole - hil l s
in comparison, i f we take into consideration the rela
tive s ize of the builders . Some are in the ground,i n
cle fts o f rocks,or concealed by stones, oth ers are
under the bark or in the wood o f trees . Others againare in the hollow stalk of a plant, or in a gal l - nut or
in a deserted snai l - shel l . Now they hang high in the
boughs of a tree, now in forests they rise as domes
from the level o f the ground . Such a nest may bedug, or spun ; i t may consi st o f masonry, or o f cavities
hollowed out o f the earth or o f the wood . Sometimes
al l these modes of Operat ion enter into the same con
struction . In short, th e variabi l i ty a s to form ,style
,
or local ity i s almost unlimited. There i s one charac
teristic,however
,common to
'
al l ant nests,viz : the
absence of any uniform architectonic pattern ; ant
nests are irregular systems of chambers and gal leries,
giving shelter to the ants and their offspring, and
communicating by di ff erent openings wi th the outside
world. This ve ry i rregu larity o f th ei r buil dings
enables the ants to su itably adapt thei r nests to any
local ity and to employ any kind o f material in thei r con
struction . The artificial and , as i t were , mathematical
regulari ty o f the honey- combs o f bees 1 i s enti rely
1 ) N . Ludw ig , in an essay , D er Z el lenbau der Hon igbiene, ( in“Natur un d O ff en barung,” 1896 , l 0th i ssue, p . 598 if ) , has o ff ered a
new explanat ion o f the hexah edral f orm o f the bee - ce l l and o f the th reecongruent rhombs f o rming i ts pyram id - l ike base. In h is opin ion the
pecul iar f orm o f the bee - cel l i s due on l y to the con struct ion o f the
wax combs , each ce l l bein g bui lt on l y in connec t ion with other ce l l s.For the bees are actuated by the impul se o f combin ing round cel l - wal l sbordering on one another , into one single wal l and to reduce the i rth ickness by gnawing o ff both sides as much as po ssible without per ilto thei r necessary strength . Hence, th e flat wal l s o f the f orm de scribed
96 Chapter III.
must confine our discussion to its narrowest possible
l imits , touching chiefly on such features as are of
special interest for comparative psychology .
Great as i s the variety o f ant nests,sti ll
,every
species has its pecul iar architecture , di ff ering more or
l ess from that o f any other species . Many ants, e . g . ,
our small,blacki sh garden ants (Lasius niger) and the
small,yel low meadow ants (Lasius z
‘lavus)1 work
almost exclusively in earth. Thei r nests are dug in
the ground,but above the subterranean nest they rai se
small er or larger domes o f earth , the stalks and blades
o f grass , that grow on the spot , serving as natural
pi l lars and beams . Other species, again, e . g . ,our wel l
known hil l ant s (Formica rufa)2 build so - cal led “ant
hi l l s ” the popular type o f ant nests in our northern
hem i sphere . These ant hi ll s may be termed mixed
bui ldings, an under—ground earth nest being combined
above ground with a dome consi sting of earth , pine
needle s, scraps o f dry leaves and stalks , and other part s
of plants . The di ff erent ant species which build such
ant hi l l s fol low systems and styles pecul iar to each.
Thus any one with a l ittl e practice i s abl e to determine
at once the species o f the bui lders . F. rufa bu ildsdiff erently from pratensis, pratensis from exsecta,
exsecta from sanguinea. The universal tool which ,l ike the human hand
,i s fit for and skil led in a
1 ) Both are f ound al so in N . Ameri ca ; the most common yel lowant there i s L . aphidi cola Walsh ; L . n iger i s represen ted by i ts ve rycommon N . American race L . ameri canus Em.
2 ) The N . Ame rican species o f the rufa group are very numerous ;among th em the nests o f F . exsectoides For. and obscuripes For. are
most l ike the European an t h i l l s o f F . rufa—An in te rest in g descrip .
t ion o f N . American nests i s contained in a paper of Father H . Muckermann , S . ent itled “
The structure o f the nests o f some North Amer ican spec ies o f Formi ca.
”
June,
Archi tecture in the Animal K ingdom. 97
variety o f performances i s found in the j aws (mandibles ) o f the ants . O f course , in digging burrows inthe earth and in constructing earth - works they are al so
assisted by thei r fore - legs,which help partly to scrape
up the sand and partly to hol d down and fasten pel lets
of earth . In closely al l ied species the shape o f these
instruments,and especially that o f the al l - important
too thed inner edge ( cutting edge) o f the mandible,i s a s a rule so s imilar1 that the specific d iff erences in
architectural style can be accounted for only by the
Fig. 2 . Fig. 3.
Lef t mand ib le o f Formi ca rufa. R igh t mand ible o f F . sangu inea.
(Worker . ) (Worker . )
instinctive pre fermen t o f a part icular style on the part
o f di fferent ant species . In the case o f ants , therefore ,i t wil l never do to re sort to the mechanical automati sm
of animal act ivit ies,and to explain the diff erences Of
instincts merely by di ff erences o f bodily organs . The
decisive factor i s the psychic variety of instinctive dis
posi tions. By them the bodily organs , in themselves
indi fferent, are directed in thei r various modes of
Operation .
It i s true,to a certain extent, that the nature o f
See the subjo ined cuts. Both are drawn with the Ze i ss ’m icro scope , syst. A 1 ,
an d Abbe ’ s Camera luc ida.
7
98 Chapter III.
the exterior organs of ants wi ll al so decide th e natureof thei r architecture . Thus e . g. , the large Camponotus
l igniperdus (horse ants) and their al l ied species possess larger workers
,whose huge head and strong
mandibles enable them to cut gal leries in the woo d o f
decayed or even of sound trees . And therefore these
species are remarkable for wood nests. Others again,among them the j et black Lasius ful iginosus as theonly one o f th is kind among the emmets of northern
Europe,build paper nests by gnawing wood - fibre and
gluing i t together with the st icky product o f thei r
sal ivary glands . Th ey thus produce a coarse , brown
papiermaché, in which they e stabl i sh their nest s . Far
more perfect are the paper nests made by severalforeign ants
,especial ly in South Ameri ca, Madagas
car and East India . They resemble irregular, brown
or grey- co lored wasp - nests,su spended from or fast
ened between branches o f trees . Rev. A . Schupp,S . J. , sent me from Porto Al egre (South Brazi l )severa l paper nests o f Cremastogaster sulcata, one Of
which on arriving in Hol land stil l contained several
thou sands o f l ive inhabitant s . S imi lar nests o f Cre
mastogaster S chenki i n Madagascar are reported by
S ikora to be sometimes o f such size as to accommo date
a ful l - grown man . From these paper - nests we must
di stingui sh nests wh ich are spun and do not consi st ofa paper - l ike material but o f a texture l ike cobwebs .
Such webs are constructed , according to Wroughton’
s
Observations! by an East Indi an ant P olyrhachis
spinigera for l in ing her earth - burrows . Other Indianand Austral ian ants of the genera Oecophylla and Poly
1 )“Our Ants , part I , p. 25 (“Journal o f the Bombay Nat. H ist.
100 Chapter III.
species, e . g. , between ants and their guests, such asthe club - bearing beetles (Claviger) , the tu fted beetles
(L omechusa, A temeles) , etc . But even those cavities
of plants,which are properly not meant to receive and
to lodge ants, are Often occupied by them , especially
in the luxuriant vegetat ion o f tropical South America .
Aug . Forel in the winter o f 1895 and 1896 visited
the savannas of Columbia, where he'
found that the
nests o f by far the most of the species,belonging to
e ight di fferent genera,were bui lt in dry stalks o f grass . 1
This led him to th ink that in the prairies and forests o f
tropical America the nests in stalks and in hol low parts
o f plants were the typical form o f ant nests,correspond
ing to the cl imate of that country, whereas in our
zones the usual type i s the earth nest or el se th e hi ll
made of earth and parts o f plants .
Th i s cursory compari son of the various forms 2 o f
nests met with in di ff erent ant species , shows clearly
enough,that thei r character i s conditione d by the
pecul iar shape o f the bodily organs o f the bui lders but
far less than is the case with most o f the other art i sti c
instincts in insects and other animal s . The form o f
the mandibles , the presence o f sal ivary glands with
gluey secret ions or of real spinning glands,indicate
only the general outl ine of the architectural style
preferred by their owners . Only the di ff erent instinct ive dispositions o f the bui lders determine moreexactly the Specific diff erence s o f thei r nest forms .
1 )“Quel ques part i cularité s dc l ’hab itat des f ourmi s de l ’Amérique
t ropicale (Extr. des Ann . de la Soc . En tom. Belg. , XL 167 ss. )
an d“Zur F'auna und Leben swei se der Ame isen im columb ischen
Urwald.
” in“Mi tte i l . der Schwe i z . Entomo l . IX, 9th i ssue ,
2 ) Forel, “D ie Nester de r Ame isen ,
”Zuerich , 1892 .
A rch i tecture in the Animal Kingdom. 101
Within the l imits of these inst inctive,hereditary dis
posit ions there i s plenty o f room for the worker ants
to gi ve ful l play to thei r individual powers o f sensit ive
cognition and appetite . Thi s i s why certa in ant spe
cies,part icu larly those skil led in earth work or wood
work,o ften take possession Of some spot so su itable
for thei r dwel l ing as to be practical ly hal f - finished .
This they fit up in a becoming manner as a home for
their colony. Such attractive spots are e . g . on the
heaths of north ern Europe rotten tree - stumps , in which
for years numbers o f bark - beetles and their larvae or
other wood - boring insects were kind enough to prepare
comfortable quarters by carving out an extensive sys
tem Of gal leries and chambers . It only remains for
the ants to take possession Of the lodgings , devour
the former inhabitants , i f there be any left , clean the
apartments , close up the superfluous entrances with
earth or rotten wood,and with the same mater ial s
construct , i f need be, a few partit ions for separate
chambers . I f, on occupying the res idence , they should
perchance di scover that part o f the stump i s already
inhabited by another ant colony,the latter are ki lled
or turned out without much ado . I f they should fai l
in thi s, they make peace and l ive on good terms with
the rival s , especial ly i f the latter are equal to them in
fighting strength , but di ff er greatly in s ize and means
of defense . Th e nests are separated by partit ions,and
the stump i s henceforth inhabited by a “compoundnest .”
Such stolen nest s f orm a large category of antnests , particularly in places where there are many
stones ; for almost al l ant species that dwel l in earth
102 Chapter III .
nests,have a predi lection for building under stones .
This Saves them a great deal Of work and gi ves th e
whole bui lding greater firmness , and , moreover, in
such a nest the heat o f the sun more eas ily penetrates
to the in terior . In heaths a l so , where stones are rather
rare,instances of such stolen nests may occur . A nest
o f F. sanguinea! on which in 1894 I had placed a clod
o f heath serving i t henceforth as roo f, had in 1895
passed into the possession o f a colony o f Lasius n iger ,
in the years 1896-
98, i t was again inhabited by F. san
guinea. A short t ime ago , in the same region near
Exaten,I found a rather extensive earth hil l supported
in the centre by a bunch o f heather and inhabited by
a large colony o f F. rufibarbis. The ants had col lected
on the surface a sma l l heap of dry heather- l eaves , as
they general ly do there . The earth hil l it se l f, how
ever , j udging by its architecture, was an o ld nest o f
L . n iger, which subsequently had been occupied by
the rufibarbis. H i story i s s ilent as to whether the original bui lders o f the nest had quitted i t be fore th e time
o f the foreign invasion , or whether they were com
pel led by force to evacuate i t .
F. sanguinea are a rest le s s people . They frequentlydesert thei r nests , which are then taken possession o f
by other, smaller species ( especial ly Tetramorium
caespi tum,L . niger and alienus) . I have noted a num
ber o f such instances in my records o f the last few
years ; i t may suffice to mention one o f the most
remarkable . A large colony o f F. sanguinea (No . 72
of my stat . map ) , in 1895 and 1896 , had inhabited a
group o f th ree nests , distant from one another 3 and
1 ) Co lony No . 1 55 o f the stati st ical map .
104 Chapter III.
tation of the hereditary inst inctive activities . As
these ants , in the parlance o f modern animal psychol
ogy, possess a high degree of“ individual intell igence,
because under the influence of thei r sense - perceptions
and sense - experiences they are able to adapt their
innate,instinctive di sposit ions and aptitudes to any kind
o f ci rcumstances,so they mani fest great adaptib i l ity in
the bui lding of thei r nests . I have drawn up stati stics
o f the sanguinea colonies in the neighborhood o f Exa
ten, which show that to my knowledge there are in
thi s region about nests of thi s ant species,
embracing 4 1 0 colon i es . The architectural style o f the
nests varies greatly. By far th e maj ori ty o f them
are underground,bu il t ei ther below the bare surface
or under a shrub o f heather, beneath a loose clod ,under a stone or at the foot o f a tree . In connection
with th i s underground earth - nest there i s general ly
on the surface a greater or smaller heap of dry leaves
col lected from the heather shrubs . Th is heap,together
with the earth carried out of the interior gal leries and
the twigs o f the shrubs supporting the whole construe
tion, forms a sort o f protect ive dome . With large nests
th i s h i l l sometimes has a circumference of several
meters and a height o f several decimeters ( e . g. , in
colonies NOS . 20 8, 2 16 , but often i t i s rather
insignificant and sometimes it i s altogether wanting.
Besides these s imple or mixed earth -nests,F. san
guinea builds al so in rotten stumps o f fir- trees or oaks,now under the loose bark , now in the wood , now in the
roots . Sometimes the old stump i s surrounded by
earth - galleri es , and somet imes the whole nest i s con
fined to the stump itsel f. The nest o f one o f our
Archi tecture in the Animal Kingdom. 105
sanguinea colonies here (NO. 1 1 2 o f stat . map ) i s
bui l t in a lo fty and sturdy oak, in the mould and the
cle fts Of a hollow in the tree, almost a yard above the
ground . These observations Show that the sanguine
ants are able to choose the most pecul iar places for
their nest and to adapt its construct ion to any local
c ircumstances . This is confirmed by the following
observat ion . In the immediate neighborhood o f Exa
ten the earth - nests prevai l,while two k i lometers further
or near the vi llage o f Grathem,the greater number o f
nests are buil t in rotten fir- stumps,because in that
region the ground is more turfy and thus renders the
construction o f earth - works rather laborious .
Not less variable than the style i s the number o f
nest s const itut ing a colony Of F. sanguinea. Among
the above mentioned 4 1 0 colonies which are known
to me in thi s region, there are but a few that have only
one nest . These are mostly weak tribes which, on
account o f the scarcity o f members , feel no need of
oth er nests . In some cases , however, even a very
strong colony has only a single nest buil t in a special ly
convenient place , general ly at the foot o f a fir
( e . g . , col . 2 0 8 and In such cases the coneen
tration of the building is o f greater advantage than
it s divis ion into a number o f di ff erent nests .
However,by far the maj ority o f the sanguinea colo
nies have several nests , averagi ng from two to eight,e ither close together or farther Off from another , some
t imes inhabited s imultaneously , somet imes by turns .
The distance between the nests o f one colony i s mostly
only from to 4 m . , but sometimes from 1 0 to 2 0 m .
or more . The latte r i s part icularly the case with thei r
106 Chapter
summer and winter residences, or rather with theabodes for w inter and for spring ; for, many but by
no means al l sanguinea colonies of thi s country have
special winter - quarters establ i shed in thickets under
the roots o f tree s or stumps and a ff ording deep and
warm recesses fo r th e cold season . The spring res i
dence, however, which again often cons ists o f several
s ingle nests,i s general ly bu i lt near the edge of the
th icket . Here, on the first warm days o f March and
Apri l,the ants can always be observed changing thei r
quarters and moving over with the whole family tothe spring residence . In September or at least in the
beginning of October they change again, moving inthe Oppo si te d irection .
I f it should become very hot and dry in summer,the colonies move to their winter quarters during the
dog- days, thus converting the winter nest into a midsummer nest . 1 When at the end of August
,1898,
1
had returned after several weeks of absence,I found
that during the exceptional ly hot days o f August most
o f the sanguinea colonie s of thi s region had aban
doned thei r spring nest . What had become of them ?
As I was well acquainted with the winter nests o f many
colonies by the means o f the stati stical map I had
drawn up in th e preceding years , i t occurred to me to
look there in search o f them . The resul t was rather
striking : al l o f the emigrated colonies possessing
winter quarters o f thei r own, had al ready occupied
them ! This was such a regular occurrence, that, when
1 ) The country about Exaten consists in i ts uppermo st layer o f
l ight sand, wh ich at once loses al l i ts mo i sture in places expo sed f or
some time to the scorch ing rays o f the sun. Th i s condi tion o f the so i lis surely essent ial in expla in ing the f acts just men tioned.
108 Chapter III.
to feel uncomfortable in thei r residence on the south ern
edge o f a fir- plantation,they emigr ate, bag and bag
gage, to the more shady side on the north . Toward the
end o f May,1896 ,
I observed several colon i es chang
ing thei r nests for thi s reason . I f the weather changes
and continues to be chil ly and rainy,they bundle up
once more and go back to the old home . A s imilar
instance, I noticed on June 2 0 , 1896 . There had been
heavy showers for several days back and many san
guinea colonies that hitherto had l ived in earth - nests
were moving into old oak stumps ; for these afi‘orded
them a better shelter against the penetrating rains .
Those who designate as “intel ligence,
” every sui table
change in instinct ive act ivit ies , caused by sense percep
tions and sense experiences in an imals , can hardly
escape from crediting an ts with rather a considerable
degree o f animal intel l igence ! for even in the h ighest
mammals we hardly find a h igher degree o f “
psychic
plastici ty,
” than i s man i fested in the above examples
by the sanguine slavemakers. However,we have
already shown in a former essay ( Inst inct and Intel l i
gence in the Animal K ingdom ) , that it i s ent irely
wrong to apply the term “ intel l igence” in thi s man
ner ; for the phenomena in question can be ful ly
accounted for by instinctive sensat ion and , therefore ,they do not supply th e least evidence i n favor of intel
l igent, mental act ivity of the animal . Man ,o f course
,
in observing such phenomena , can attribute to the ants
the following reasoning : “For the last few day s it has
been raining a great deal . We and our chi ldren have
become dripping wet . Now ,we do not want to get
wet again ; there fore, we must move to another dwell
Arch itecture in the A nimal Kingdom. 109
ing, where the rain can not enter ; those old oak
stumps , however, are j ust the thing ; therefore wemove to that place .”—We, however, maintain : Wi thout admitting animal intell igence the whole affai r i s
explained much better from the inst inct ive association
o f sense representations . Th e ants do not l ike the
o ld place any more on account o f the disagreeabl e
experiences undergone there, there fore they look for
another . That under these circumstances, j ust those
dry oak - stumps appear to them to be so very inviting,fol lows from the suitable di sposit ion of the sensi tive
cognition and appeti te . That ants in such cases are
intel lectual ly conscious of the sui tableness of this
change of nests, i s an unwarranted assumption to which
we reply : quad gratis asseri tur, gratis negatur. In
other words : we are not al lowed arbitrari ly to attrib
ute a human course o f reasoning to animal s in the
sense o f“popular” psychology. Such men as L.
Buechner may find a proof o f the “high inte ll igence”
of ants in the fact that , e . g ., in low - lands L eptothorax
acervorum resides under barks of trees , but in the
A lps under stones .1 A lthough we consider the power
o f adaptation mani fested by the sanguineas in thei r
nest - building instincts far more deserving of admira‘
t ion , yet we are far from regarding even thi s power as
an instance of animal intel l igence , but , rather , o f animal
instinct , the various activities o f which depend neither
1 ) Buechne r, Ge i stesleben der Th iere , p . 73. In th i s book the
autho r cal l s L eptothorax acervorum e rroneousl y Lasius acer'vorum.
Romanes in his book, “D ie Ge i st ige En twick lun g im Thierre ich
”
(Le ipzig, p . 268 , was surel y re f erring to the same passage o f
Buechner, because he sti l l more e rroneously cal l s that an t Lasiusacerborum.
110 Chapter III.
on mechanical automati sm no r on indivi dual reflec
t ion o f the animal , but on the su itable di sposition o f
its sensit ive cognition and appetite .True
,the p lasticity o f the building instinct i s
greater with the sanguineas than with their al l ied
species ; yet even the latter sometimes per form actions
that go to prove clearly, that the nest - building instinct
in ants i s not bl ind mechanism,but i s su itably modified
by their sensit ive cognition . I observed a striking
instance o f thi s kind in the summer o f 1898 at Lipp
spri nge in Westphal ia . In a growth o f young fir- trees
near the so - cal led Fisherman ’ s hut th ere l ay a smal l
heap o f o ld p ieces o f tar- paper . This treasure had
been discovered by some Formica truncicolaNyl . , which
had their nest at a di stance o f 64 m . in a fir- plantat ion
on the other s ide o f a broad,sandy road . Thei r nest
was a normal truncicola nest, a hi l l o f fir- needles and
earth, built around a fir sapl ing . Now,the ants were
better pleased with the newly discovered place under
th e tar - paper,than with thei r o riginal nest
,therefore
they moved over, bag and baggage ; and the moving
lasted several weeks . The tar - paper aff orded them ina far higher degree the advantages usual ly derived
from thei r surface domes cal led ant - hil l s , for under
the layer o f tar - paper warmed by the rays o f the sun
there was a uni forml y higher temperature and, at thesame time , an eff ectual shel ter against the rain . There
fore they establ i shed thei r nest under the tar - paper
w i thout surmounting i t by a hil l . When I returnedto Lippspr inge at the end of May, 1899, the truncicola
nest was st i l l under the tar - paper, no indicat ions o f
any bui lding being visibl e above ground . Thei r former
112 Chapter III.
guinea selects for i ts nes t a more hidden place than a
stronger one does . This i s especially the case, i f there
are hosti le ant species in the neighborhood , l iable to
pay them a visi t at any time. Thus colony 1 66 of my
stat i stical map o f Exaten,being harassed by neigh
boring pratensis, had at last hidden itsel f so wel l in
the earth, that I was obl iged to spend a considerable
t ime be fore finding it . I mysel f have often enough
been vexed to see that colonies o f the same sanguinea,on being disturbed even by the hand o f man , emigrateand seek el sewhere a new place o f settlement . Some
times even a clod of heather placed on their nests wil l
cause weaker colonies to emigrate . This i s al l th e
more strange,since our sanguinea i s very fond o f
using such clods as a roofing for her nests . Othercolonies , indeed , did not emigrate on account o f my
repeated vis its , but tried to ret ire farther into the
interior . A striking instance o f th i s kind was o ff ered
by co lony No . 36 , which was of moderate dimensions .
Originally the exterior o f the nest looked l ike anycommo n earth - nest o f the same numerical strength .
Th e clod which I had placed on i t was used as a roof
and was covered by a heap of dry heather leaves . I
o ften visited the nest and each time I l i fted the clod
to have a view of the inter ior o f the bu ilding . In con
sequence the ants blocked up the former entrances ;they dug new ones at a greater di stance from the
nest,and came to the surface much more rarely. Even
the small heap o f material s gathered from plants
gradually di sappeared from the t0 p o f their nest .
A fter a t ime it was blown or washed away,nor did
the ants renew it . It was evidently instinct that led
Archi tecture in the Animal Kingdom. 113
them to withdraw from these repeated disturbances by
closing up and concealing their nest.
Pro fessor Aug. Forel 1 relates that he had brought
home from A lgeria a colony o f Myrmecocystus altis
quamis and placed it in hi s garden at Zuerich ; but
owing to the trouble caused them by the small ants
Lasius niger and Tetramorium caespi tum they grad
ual ly modified their usual manne r o f nest construction .
Under normal ci rcumstances thi s Myrmecocystus
species has wide open nest entrances ; in th is case,however, they were contracted to a ff ord greater pro
tection against the thievish vi sitors and finally they
were almost entirely closed up . Th l S instance i s s im
i lar to the one recorded above of colony 36 o f F.
sanguinea, and is psychological ly to be explained in
the same way. The repeated d isagreeable experiences
caused to the ants by the troublesome strangers
induced the Myrmecocysti , contrary to the ir former
habits,to close up and to conceal thei r nest . As
Forel point s out, these fact s afford irre futable evidence
o f the great plasticity o f ant inst inct . For, th i s
instinct i s not merely a nervous mechanism forced to
operate along uni form l ines ; i t includes sensitive cog
n ition and appetite, which are not only o f an organic
but al so o f a psychi c nature . Thus animal s are
enabled,by new sense perceptions and experiences
,
to adapt thei r wonted mode of act ion to the require
ments of ci rcumstances . This does not,however
,
compel us in the least to attribute to animals a power
of cognit ion essent ially the same as human intel l igence
1 )“L es Form ic i des de la Province d
’
Oran (Lausanne, P.
8 ; see al so “Apercu de Psycho logie comparée ,” p . 24, by th e same
autho r.1 8
1 14 Chapter III.
in fact,we cannot even do so
,i f we wish at al l to
proceed scient ifical ly . Popu lar psychology may,indeed
,perceive a “ sp iritual power o f reflection” in
those act iviti es of animals,in which sense experiences
enter as additional factors . And of course, thi s
uncri t ical procedure forces them,in consequence
,
-to
ascribe to ants at least the same degree o f “ individual
intel l igence” as to the highest mamm al s ; for, with
the latter great plast icity o f instinct i s rarer than with
ants . These conclusions,which are declared absurd
by modern evolut ioni sts themse lves,clearly prove the
untenabi l i ty and'
sel f- contradict ion o f modern animal
psychology .
4 . H ow do Ants Bui ld Their N ests?
In spite o f it s i rregularity every ant nest i s always
a unit, consi st ing of one or more chambers , gal l eries
and entrances , by which ants communicate with the
outside world . And now we are confronted with the
question : How do the members o f a colony co - 0 per
ate in build ing their nest ?
A lmost a hundred years ago Peter Huber 1 attentively observed the ants building thei r nests , and
described in a masterly manner the ski l l and ass iduity
of these smal l animals . Any one can sati sfy himsel f
o f the correctness of these observations by watching
wood ants (F. rufa) building their h i ll s on somesunny day in spring
,or by looking at the smal l
,black
garden ants (Lasius niger) constructing their earth
nests during some warm spring shower .
1 )“Recherches sur l es mo eurs des f ourmi s indigenes
Nouvel le édit ion , 1861 . Chap . I .
116 Chapter III.
thus interpreted by writers on popular science,and
made to serve as a beauti ful proo f of animal intell i
gence . This kind o f arbitrary misrepresentat ion o f
the plainest fact s can certainly lay no claim to any
scientific value .
How, then, do ants bui ld their nests ? They adapt
themselves to given s ituations and prudently take
into account the various circumstances . When in
spring a gentle,warm rain begins to render the dry
soi l soft and manageable, immediately the earth
working ant species are kindled with new zeal for
bui lding. These ass iduous l ittl e an imal s wi l l then
sally forth from their ne sts by hundreds and place
pel lets o f earth upon pel lets to build new galleries and
chambers , avail ing themselves o f blades o f grass ,twigs of heather, pieces o f leaves and other natural
props as pil lars or vaults . For the same purpose such
auxil iary material s are al so first .dragged to the spot .In th is connect ion the sanguine slavemakers give evi
dence o f eminent ski l l in combining timber - work with
masonry.
I t i s especially rema rkable with earth - working ants,
that they accommodate thei r instincts to the changes
of temperature and moisture . This cou ld be ascer
tained constantly in glass nests , in which I kept under
observation smal l colonies o f Lasius niger, Tetramo
rium caespi tum and Myrmica scabrinodis. I f the mois e
ture of the nest became too great , the ants would set
to work and pile up the earth in the shape o f a dome
perforated by innumerable openings , making it appear
l ike a sponge ; thus the evaporat ion of the water was
faci l i tated . But when the moisture decreased too
Archi tecture in the Animal K ingdom.117
much and the nest threatened to dry up,a change to
the opposite was eff ected ; the nest was constructed as
flat and as low as possible with very few openings on
the surface. The propriety of such proceedings i s cer
tainly str iking. O ften enough the same can beobserved also in nature
,both in those species that
bui ld only domes o f earth , and in those that bui ld
regular ant - h i l l s . I t i s a fact even noticed by farmers
and ascertained by mysel f repeatedly,that in dry and
hot summers the hil l s o f wood ants are lower and
flatter than in moist and cold summers . The first way
o f bui lding i s for the purpose o f reducing evaporation
to the lowest l imit and to offer to the hot rays of the
sun but a smal l surface to shine upon ; on the other
hand , the higher and the more vaulted the hill s are ,the easie r i s the drainage in case o f rains, and the
greater are the evaporating . and heating sur faces .
Indeed , ants would have to be very intelligent, i f thei r
own reflect ion should lead them to mo di fy thei r nests
so prudently. Yet, considering that the dome shape
for the nest includes in princ ipl e these quas i - intel l i
gent adj ustment s to the variat ions of temperature and
moisture,which can be traced, in consequence , to the
speci fic manner of bu ilding proper to the ants in
question,i t i s clear that instinct and not intelligence
i s the guiding principle ; for , the specific plan of the
building i s,no doubt , instinctive, as i s acknowledged
at least by scientific authors . In adj usting,however
,
thei r instincts to changing circumstances, the animal s
are influenced by sensit ive perceptions and experi
emees , which are no thing el se than the natural exercise
of the same instinctive power of cogni tion, on which i s
118 Chapter 111 .
based the specific mode of building in any species o fants . Why
,there fore
,introduce a fore ign element
,
cal led intel l igence,between this hereditary disposition
and its changeable application ? I should think it i s
far more simple and natural to account for the whole
activity of an animal by one and the same principle.
Unless you mistake instinct for mechan ical automatism
, i t i s by no means necessary to assume animal
intell igence in order to explain the above phenomena .
Let us now compare the arch itecture of ants with
that o f birds . There are several important di ff erences .
The nests o f birds are more arti sti c1 and regular
yet they are stamped with the unmistakable marks of
monotony and uni formity within the same species,they are product s o f inst inct in the str ictest sense o f
the term . Moreover , as A ltum 2 has adm i rably proved,
the architecture o f birds i s a function o f thei r
breeding instinct . I t begins at a certain stage
o f the development o f thi s instinct ; both reach
thei r cl imax at the same time, and then grad
ual ly vani sh together . On th i s account the nestsfor the first hatching in spring are , as a rule , built
better than those later in the season . In thi s case
pract ice does not form the master but the bungler .3
With ants,however
,architectural sk il l i s found in the
workers throughout thei r l i fe , i t i s su itably carri ed in to
1 ) By the way , th i s art h as o f ten been exagge rated . See“Die
Baukun st der Voege l auf ih ren wah ren We rt zurueckge fueh rt, in
“Jah rbuch der Naturw i ssensch .
” I ( 1885 198 .
2 )“Der Voge l und se in Leben ( 6 th p . 163 if .
3 ) Someth ing s imi lar obta in s al so among th e Co leoptera in th e
in gen ious n est - bui ld in g o f the lea f - ro l l ing beet le (Rhyn ch ites be tulae ) .
See Wasmann,
“Der T ri chte rwick ler , p . 78 ff .
120 Chapter III.
they d isgu ised thei r nest .” 1 The visual resemblance
between the white tree - li chens and the paper - scraps ,which impressed the sensit ive power of perception of
those chafli nches explains quite natural ly their seem
ingly intel l igent proceeding.
He, who concurs with Darwin2 i n attr ibut ing inte l
l igence to birds when thei r actions are influenced by
sensitive cogn i t ion,must credi t ants with a stil l h igher
degree o f intel l igence ; for i t cannot be denied that
bi rds,in bui lding thei r nests , show far more specific
uni formity than individual variabil i ty,whereas in ants ,
as a rule, the contrary i s the case ; with them the
psychic plasticity”
o f the nest - build ing inst inct i s no
doubt much greater.
Yet the chief point o f excel lence,which distin
guishes the architecture o f an ts from that o f birds i s
the number of uses to which it may be put. Birds
bu i ld nests to serve as places for hatching the ir young
only ; except during the pairing season , birds do not
know thei r nests , nor does i t ever occur to them to
use them as dwel l ing- places . With ants,however
,
nests serve as permanent abodes for the whole family
and often al so for strangers of di ff erent species,which
are hospitably received as guests . Finally, ants u se
thei r architectural ski l l for many other purposes . But
be fore enter ing into particulars on thi s head , we would
l ike to draw a comparison between th e architecture o f
mammals and that o f ants.
In as far as the buildings o f many mammal s are
1 ) Ch . Darwin , too , men t ion s al ready a nest o f a chafli nch describedby H ew i tson , in wh ich , in stead o f l ich en s , sh reds o f paper l ikewisehad been employed (1. e . , p .
2) L. e . , p . 414.
Arch i tecture in the Animal Kingdom.121
no-t only nests but also permanent dwel l ings both for
the parents and the young,they bear a closer resemb
lance to the nests o f ants than to those o f birds .
Instances are plenti ful ; for the burrows o f badgers ,foxes and wild rabbits are wel l known . In some cases
the same buildings serve also for storing provis ions ,as i s the case with German marmots and moles . These
buildings , therefore , by their greater universal ity o f
purpose, are more simi lar to ant - nests than to bird
nests . Another point o f simi larity with the former
i s in thi s , that they show , with some species at least,a greater individual variabi l ity and less specific uni
formity than the latter . Nevertheless,in al l these
respects ant - nests by far excel the bui ldings o f mam
mal s . The very highest vertebrates,th e anthropoid
apes , scarcely mani fest a trace o f building instinct or
of ~ i t s intel l igent appl ication , unless you wish to
mention the sleep ing - places somewhat resembling
regular nests , which Orang- Utans 1 are wont to build
on trees . A lthough the brain o f apes mos t resembles
that o f man , yet th e most“ intel l igent” architects
among mammal s are found, not among the apes but
among the rodents , which in development o f brain
are far in ferior . B eavers are the . only h igher animal s
whose arch itecture can bear comparison with that o fants .
The bui ldings of beaver - famil ies consi st o f an
underground chamber and burrow resembl ing those
of other mammal s , and of a so—called “ lodge . The
manner in which the latter is bu i lt was ably described
1 ) See Buetti kofer, Zoo logi sche Ski zzen aus der N i ederlaend ischen
Exped it ion nach Cen tra l - Bo rneo” ( Compte rendu du 3me Congresin te rnat ional de p. 224.
122 Chapter III.
by Fri edrich in a recent publ icat ion .
1 The beaver
lodge is noth ing but an accumulation of brushwood
above the opening o f the underground chamber,which
i s the real center o f the whole dwell ing. Wherever
beavers are l iving in colonies and when circumstances
favor the ful l development o f thei r instinctive skil l i n
building, they construct thei r wel l - known dikes2to
dam the water,and sometimes they even bui ld canal s
for the tran sportation of timber. A l though these
works are the resul t o f the co - operat ion o f several
fami l i es , yet each pair works only for its own pur
poses ; there i s never any divi sion o f labor l ike that
in ant colonies . O f course, observers l ike Lewis H .
Morgan ,3 who mistake for intel l igence every act ion
due to sensi tive cognition, di scover many proo fs o f
high intel l igence in the doings of the American
beavers . However,thi s so - cal led free intel l igence” i s
nothing else than the power o f adapting thei r bu ildings
to the change s o f s ituation . This power is possessed
al so by ants in at l east an equal degree . I f Morgan
and Romanes! e . g .,regard it as an infal l ible proo f
of the intel l igence o f beavers that they regulate the
level o f th ei r ponds by widening or narrowing the
o rifices o f thei r dams as the case may be ,” they should
admit the same in ants, which regulate the degrees o fmoisture and temperature o f thei r nests by changing
1 )“D ie B i oer an der mi tt le rn E lbe (Dessau,
p . 20 if .
2 ) A ccording to Friedrich th ey al so occur at some places on the
banks o f the middle E lbe , although indeed on a smal ler sca le ; theref ore they are due to an in stinct common bo th to the European and
the Ameri can beaver.3)
“The Ame ri can Beaver and h is W o rks (Lippin cott Co . ,
4)“An imal Inte l l igen ce ( 6 th ed) , p . 377 ff .
124 Chapter III.
where they vis it the i r plantlice and scale—insects to“milk” them by caressing them with thei r feelers . A
few European ants,namely Formica rufa
, pratensis
and Lasius fuliginosus bui ld regular streets , clearing
away from their path al l vegetable growth to a di s
tance o f sometimes from 2 0 to 50 m .
1 These streets
l ead from thei r nests into woods and bushes and thence
branch o ff to the pasture - grounds of their cattle .
”
Other ants,in particular Lasius niger and Cremas
togaster scutel laris bu i ld covered roads or tunnel s of
earth, by wh ich their nests communicate with trees
and bushes that are inhabited by aphides or scale
insects . These they occasional ly surround with earth
ramparts , in order to keep them together and to pro
tect them from other ants by whom they might be
coveted . Such a “
p lantl ice- pavil ion
,
” an earth con
struction the s ize o f a hazel - nut,i s in my col lection ;
i t was bui lt by Myrmica scabrinodis at the top of an
oak—twig in the neighborhood of Exaten . Other ants,
e . g . , the A frican Dorylus species, dig subterranean
tunnel s , where they go for thei r prey, consi sting
chiefly o f insects and worms . The harvest ing ants o f
Southern Europe , Western A sia,Northern A frica ,
America and India establ i sh granaries in thei r nests ,where they sto re up th ei r provis ions for w inter or sum
mer . The A tta of tropical America , feeding on mush
rooms,use a number of subterranean chambers as vege
t able gardens and hot—houses, in which the mushrooms
1 ) Among f o re ign an ts there are especial l y the larger spec ies o f
the American l eaf ~ cutt ing an ts (At ta ) wh ich , accord ing to Bel t , Bren tand Fo re l , bu i ld s imi lar roads , but f requen tl y o f a st i l l more con siderable len gth and breadth . Th e same an t - roads we find in North Ame ricawith an ts o f th e group o f F . rufa, espec ial ly wi th Fo rmi ca exsecto i des.
Archi tecture in the Animal Kingdom .
are grown .
1 Ants employ thei r bui lding ski l l also to
protect themselves against enemies . They raise ram
parts and barricades to keep o ff foreign invaders ; and
unwelcome vis itors which cannot be got r id o f in any
other way,are simply wal led up with earth , and are
thus kept at a di stance . Th us , in one of my observa
tion nests o f F. sanguinea a salamander introduced
by me was in a short time entirely wal led in . Th e
slaves (F. fusca) , past masters in the art of bui ld ing,were most zealous in thi s work . An occurrence far
more amus ing took place in a nest o f Lasius flavus,to whom I had given a L omechusa strumosa as guest .
The smal l , yel low ants were not at all pleased with
the unwieldy fel low,and tried to get rid o f his impor
tun ity in the fo l lowing drol l manner . From al l quar
ters they brought together pel lets o f earth and heaped
them up on the back o f the unfortunate beetle , unti l
nothing was to be seen o f him but the t ips o f hi s
feelers . 2
Ants are even supposed to have thei r cemeteries
and burial - places . Superficial observers have circu
lated many fables on th is subj ect . In the book o f a
certain Reverend White (Ants and their Ways, Lon
don ,I found a touching story by Mrs. Lewis
Hutton , o f S idney, which i s real ly too characteri stic of
thi s kind of natural h i story to be passed over in si lence .
One o f her chi ldren had sat down on an ant - nest and
had been assai led by the enraged inhabitants . At the
1 ) Moel ler , D ie P i lzgaerten e in iger suedamerikan isch er Amei sen(Jena, and Forel
,
“Zur Fauna und Leben swe ise der Ame i sen
im Co lumb ischen Urwald (M i ttei l . der Schwei z. Entom .
IX , 9th i ssue ) , p . 406 .
2 )“D ie in ternationalen Beziehungen von L omechusa strumosa
,
in Biol . 1892, p . 653.
126 Chapter III.
cries o f her chi ld the mother ran to the spot and ki lled
a few score o f ants . A short time after she saw the
corpses surrounded by a number of thei r companions .
The burial ceremonies began . A deputat ion o f ants
was despatched to the nest to fetch the train o f
mourners . They marched in due order two by two to
the scene o f disaster. They took up the corpses ,marched slowly in procession to a sandy place in the
ne ighborhood and buried them one by one . A few o f
the gravediggers which tried to escape th i s dole fu l
duty by fl ight, were pursued by the other ants , over
taken and summari ly sentenced to death . The sen
tence was immediately carried out, and the criminal s
were al l interred in a common pit . The said lady
maintains to have witnessed similar proceedings more
than once . Gerstaecker in h is “Report on the scientific
results obtained by Entomology during the year 186 1 ”
mentions thi s burial story (p . 1 56 ) with the follow
ing i roni ca l remark : “To render the mystification
complete, nothing more was lacking than a funeral
sermon held by one o f the ants .” S trange to say ,Perty 1 attempts to defend the imaginative lady againstGerstaecker by saying : “There seems to be some
truth in it,anyway, for D upont al so maintains that
ants have common graveyards at some distance from
their buildings, whither they carry their dead .
”
Ernest André2 was far more correct about those burial
ceremonies o f ants in cal l ing them phantastic misrepresentations of the commonest occurrences . It seems
scarcely poss ible , that such an anecdote should see
1 )“See len leben der Th iere (2d p . 328.
2)
“Les fourm i s” ( Pari s, p .
128 Chapter III ..
o f such disagreeabl e obj ects . It i s utterly use less toembell i sh the l i fe of ants w ith fabulous anecdo te s l ike
that Austral ian burial story. The cold facts are inter
esting and wonder ful enough .
6 . Is the Archi tecture of Ants Guided by Intel ligence ?
The bu ilding instinct o f ants proves to be such a
universal faculty, an d i ts appl ication to various pur
poses i s in many cases seemi ngly so intell igent,that
we are finally confronted by the quest ion : Whyshould we not cal l th is an intellectual faculty ? The
following discussion wil l probably throw some l ight
on th e subj ect .
Would it not be a proof of intel l igence, i f ants ,not themselves provided with spinning glands ,employed thei r larvae for manufacturing threads
,by
means o f which they bu ild a nest o f leaves ? Accord
ing to W . D . Holland ’s observations thi s i s done by a
large , reddish - yellow ant of Eastern A s ia call ed
Oecophyl la smaragdina, whose nests he studied in
Ceylon .
1 With their mandibles the ants first bring into
the proper position the leaves to be connected and keep
them th ere ; then others approach in large numbe rs ,each carrying a larva in its mouth , with which theybegin to move across the leaves from side to s ide .
Wherever the mouth of the larva touches the leaf, a
thread appears sticking to the lea f. This process i s
cont inued,unti l the leaves are attached to one another
at thei r edges by a firm ti ssue o f threads , and final ly
a vi scous,paper - l ike stu ff i s formed consi st ing of
innumerable threads crossing each other in al l direc
1 ) E ,E . Green , On the habits o f Oecophy l la smaragdina F .
Proceed ings o f the Entomo logi cal Society o f Lon don ,
”1 896 , p .
Archi tecture in the Animal Kingdom.129
t ions . Th ese ants u se thei r larvae as “spinning
wheels,” not only for building their paper - nests, but
a l so,according to Holland
,for protecting thei r nest s
against the invasions of small ants , with whom they
are in continual war fare . A round the trunk o f the
tree containing their nest they sometimes put a belt
a foot broad,formed o f threads , which serves to
entangle the smal l ants and prevent them from cl imb
ing the tree . In manu facturing thi s protective ti ssuethe ants come forth from thei r nest
,each carrying a
white pel let in it s mouth , and move to and fro on the
trunk . Upon closer inspection it was found that those
l ittl e white lumps were again thei r larvae !
These curious phenomena needed to be corrobo
rated by further investigation . Forel in h i s “D ie
Nester der Amei sen” (p . 2 0 ) already called attention
to the fact that the mandibular glands o f Oecophyl laare strongly developed and possess large and numer
ous cel ls . From the analogy with other ant species
(Cremastogas’ter, D olichoderus
,which secrete
a certain glue from their mandibular glands for manu
facturing thei r paper- nest s , i t might seem probable ,th at the Spinning material o f Oecophyl la proceedsfrom the ants ’ mouth . But , on the other hand , Professor Chun has recently shown in his splendid book“From the D epths o f the Ocean ,
” 1 that the spinning
glands o f the Oecophyl la- larvae are far more developed
than those found in oth er larvae o f ants . We must
conclude, therefore, that Mr. Holland ’ s statements
were qu ite exact , and that the spinning glands o f the
larvae , not the sal ivary glands o f the ants themselves ,
1)“Aus den Tief en des We ltmeeres, 2d cd. , Jena, 1903,
p . 129.
9
180 Chapter III.
del iver the threads employed in the marvelous archi
tecture o f Oecophylla.
In adopting this supposition,that ants employ
their own children as a kind o f“spinning wheel
,
” we
are confronted by the extraordinary fact that an imal s
make use of an instrument,other than any bodily
organ,for bui lding and defending their nests, an
occurrence unparalleled in the whole animal kingdom ,
even among higher animals . But can we account
for the proceedings o f this Indian ant on the score
o f intelligence, that i s to say, o f her own ,individual
reflect ion ? Just as l ittle as in the case o f the other
specific arts and talents o f animals ; for they are al l
the hereditary property of certain species , not invented
or learnt by independent individual s . And, therefore,also the spinning talent o f Oecophylla, even i f it i s
done by means o f the larvae , i s due to heredi taryinstinct, not to the ind ividual intell igence o f the animal .
To obtain proofs for attributing the arch itecture
o f ants to thei r own intel l igence we should have to
look for in stances , in which , in consequence o f indi
vidual experience and reflection , these animal s modi fy
thei r innate instincts in such a manner as to invent
new means of accomplishing their purpose. This i s
the th i rd form o f independent learning, which , as we
have shown in a former publicat ion ,1 i s a real proof
o f th e intel l igence o f the learner . We must, there
fore,examine
,whether the building activity o f ants
1 ) In the chapter on the d i ff erent fo rms of learn ing i n In stinctand In te l l igence (Herder , S t . Loui s, A mo re de tai led d i scussiono f
~th i s po int will al so be f ound in our pub l icat ion ,
“Die psych i schen
Faehigkei ten der Ame i sen ( Zoologi ca,” 26 th i ssue, Stuttgart,pp. 82-114.
132 Chapter 111.
fol lowing momentous reflections : “A l l the phi los
0 phers together o f ancient and modern times , and all
the theologians moreover,will not impose upon me
by asserting that we have to do here with the action
o f an unreasonable creature . I f thi s i s inst inct , then
the invention o f the steam - engine i s instinct , too ! No,
both mean a clever profiting by gi ven circumstances,due to reflection !”
Many an unwary reader may, possibly, be over
whelmed by thi s spirited appeal to the steam - engine
on the part of Marshal l . However, i f we do not allow
ourselves to be imposed upon by the boldness o f his
oratorical fl ight, we shal l arrive at di ff erent results,without being exactly philosophers or theologians .
We can obse rve any day, that on the part of the ants
i l l - smell ing or sticky obj ects ,are s imply covered with
earth , i f they cannot be removed from the nest .Nobody will be incl ined to maintain seriously
,that
ants,by so doing, make use o f any
“ intel l igent gift o f
invention” transcending thei r power o f inst inct . Outside o f thei r nests al so
,and governed by the same
instinct,they occasional ly adopt the same procedure .
Now, in the above mentioned case the ants found , that
the road wh ich led them to thei r aphides on the tree ,had been covered with an il l - smell ing
,sticky substance .
What was more natural than to fetch pel l ets o f earth
and to clear a passage by a method so famil iar to their
instinct ? Hence , we are j u stified in drawing the fol
lowing conclusion : That by this pretended“bridge
bui lding” these ants have given infal lible evidence of
reflection,inven tive genius, and intel ligence, is a state
ment worthy only of popular, uncri tical psychology.
Archi tecture in the Animal Kingdom. 133
One th ing, however, i s made evident by theseand simi lar observations , viz . : that ants are not mere
reflex machines , but beings endowed with sensi tive
cognit ion and appetit e, and with the power of employing in the most various manner their innate
, instinc
t ive faculties and abil it i es under the influence of
di ff erent sense - perceptions . And j ust on thi s account
i t i s altogether superfluous to admit “animal intell i
gence” ; for, the complex representat ions o f sensit ive
cogn i tion , as we have shown in the above example ,a ff ord a s impler and better explanat ion o f whatever
i s not mere fict ion in those supposedly intel l igent
actions o f animal s . 1
Another example o f bridge - bui lding,which
,by the
way, i s merely vouched for by a Mr. Theuerkauf in
Buechner’
s“Geistesleben der Thiere” (p . i s
sti l l l ess corroborative of ant intel l igence than the
former . In thi s case the ants used a diff erent mean s
for bridging over a ci rcle o f tar smeared around a
tree . The ants were descending from the top ; on
arriving at the obstacl e some stuck fast, others
returned to fetch plantl ice from the twigs ; they put
them on the tar and thus constructed a bridge . S ir
John Lubbock 2 remarks in explanation o f thi s story,
that he had his doubts as to the interpretat ion o f the
fact . “Is it not possible that , as th e ants descended
the tree,carrying the aphides , the latte r natural ly
stuck to the tar,and were there fore left there ? In
the same way I have seen hundreds o f bits o f earth
1 ) Cf . on th i s po int, “ Instinct and Intel l igence in the Animal K ingdom
” p . 109 ahd 137 ff where we have shown , that not evenh igh er an imal s may be credited with f ormal con sciousness o f purpo se .
2)“An ts, bees and wasps” (London ) .
134 Chapter III.
deposited on the honey, with which I fed my ants .
In fact, only trivial observers could maintain that in
this case the ants had intentional ly employed their
aphides as bridge - bui lding materials . The correct
exp lanation might rather be the fol lowing : the ants ,becoming uneasy about thei r precious aphides l iving
on the tree,tr ied to save them by carrying them down .
By this attempt,however
,the aphides l iteral ly “got
stuck in the mud .
” I t was , no doubt , merely by
chance, that the aphides adhering to the tar formed
a sort o f bridge for the ants .
These two famous stories are,therefdre, far from
furnishing any evidence in favor o f ant - intel l igence .
We have to investigate other examples to determine
whether or not ants are able by “reasonable reflection”
to invent new means for fulfil l ing th eir designs .
S ir John Lubbock1 has made a number of experi
ment s w ith ant s in order to test thei r intell igence some
o f the more important only can be mentioned here .
For the ant s o f a nest o f Lasius niger he arranged a
bridge made o f a piece o f straw or a sl ip of paper , by
which they could get at thei r larvae . A fter the ants
had become sufficiently fam i l iar with thi s pathway,he sl ightly moved the bridge
,
“ so as to leave a chasm ,
j ust so w ide that the ants could not reach across . They
came and tried hard to do so ; but i t did not occu r to
them to push the paper bridge,though the di stance
was only about one—third inch , and they might easi ly
have done so . Another experiment he relates as
fol lows : “I suspended some honey over a nest o f
L . flavus at a heigh t of about hal f an inch, and accessi
1 )“An ts , bees and wasps , Chap . IX .
136 Chapter III.
niger he fastened a strip o f t in with some honey.A fter the ants had for a long time been al lowed to
visit the honey,the strip was gradually rai sed by a
screw, unti l from their pathway the ants could no
longer get at th e honey . Though it would have been
easy enough to heap up a l ittl e earth under the strip of
t in,i t never occurred to the ants to do so ; the honey
remained beyond the ir reach . This experiment , there
fore, had the very same results as Lubbock’
s , namely,that the ants were not capabl e o f forming the simplest
intel l igent conclusion, which would have led them to
employ their bu ilding skil l for the purpose o f gettingat the honey .
1
I may add here a few observations and experiments
of my own . S ince i t might be obj ected against Lubbock ’ s resul ts
,that he took for his experiments some
ant - species l ittle endowed with intel l igence ,” namely,
Lasius and Myrmica, I chose the most intel l igent ants,namely, Formica sanguinea
2 and her al l ied slaves as
subj ect s for experiments , of which only a brie f ext ract
i s here presented .
In the front- nest of my above mentioned observa
t ion - nest ( see p . 2 3) a piece o f wood formed a com
modious bridge, over which the ants could pass to the
rim o f the glass and thence into the top - nest . By their
earth - constructions in the front - nest the ants had
gradual ly lowered the bridge , so that the distance
1 ) Bethe in f ers f rom th i s experimen t that ants do not even po sses ssensiti ve percept ion and cogn it ion . Th i s in f erence i s to o f ar- reach ing,and i s owin g to h is m i stak ing in te l l igence f or sen sit ive cogn it ion . See“D ie psych isch en Faeh igkei ten der Ame i sen ,
” p. 73.
3) Fore l al so (“Fou rm i s de la Sui sse, p . 443) states that F.
sanguinea deserves the palm f or intel l igence.
Arch i tecture in the Animal K ingdom. 137
between the top - end o f the bridge and the cork of the
glass was about 2 cm . When exposed to the sun the ins ide
o f the glass was generally covered with moisture , and
the ants found great diffi cu lty in passing the intermedi
ate space and in gett ing into the top - nest . A lthough
this state o f affairs lasted for weeks,and the ants con
tinued to encounter the same diffi cult ies , i t never
Occurred to them to connect the broad , upper end o f
the st ick with the roo f o f the front - nest by a bridgeo f earth . They connected the s ides of the stick with the
glass by a wall of earth ; gradually they also covered
the whole glass - wall with pel lets o f earth to protect
themselves against the rays o f the l igh t ; but they
never built a bridge at the critical spot , where one was
evidently needed and o f the greatest importance . The
pel lets o f earth accidental ly fastened there were, on
the contrary,continual ly thrown down by the ants
that crawled up the road . Thus exactly that spotover which the ants, i f th ey were endowed with any
power of thought and reflection, would be expected to
build a bridge,was le ft sl ippe ry and smooth , and was
sti l l the same after hal f a year.
In 1884 I repeatedly made the fol lowing experi
ment : In a tiny vessel I suspended some honey or
ant- larvae over a nes t o f F. sanguinea, contained in a
large “crystall isator”
,
1 so that the ants could touch the
vessel with thei r antennae only, but could not reachi t except by a very circu itous route . I t should have
occurred to th em to heap up a l ittle earth or some
pieces o f wood underneath the vessel , in order to form
a “bridge” leading directly to the wished for goal .
1 ) A low,round glas s bowl , covered by a glass plate.
138 Chapter 111 .
But neither the sanguineas nor thei r slaves (F. rufaand fusca) , l iving in the same nest , ever hit upon thisobvious method
,although it would have sufficed to
ra ise the surface of the ir nest at the spot in quest ion
j ust by 1 cm. !
A more wonderful resul t was obtained in another
experiment on the same nest o f sanguinea. On June1 6, 1884, I fil led a large watch - crystal with water and
in the center upon a kind of i sland I placed a l ittle
shel l fi l l ed w ith ant- cocoons previously taken from the
same colony. T his art ificial pond with i ts i sland was
then introduced into the nest . The ants soon noticed
the cocoons and stretched out th eir feelers towards
the i sland ; but getting into the wa ter at every attempt
to approach,they retreated again and again . I
began to th ink they would never be able to overcome
the difficulty, when suddenly a sanguinea began to
throw into the water pellets o f earth, bits o f wood ,dead ants and similar sol id materials . Others followedher example and they soon had bui lt a road over the
water ! In the space of am hour , counting from the
minute I started the experiment, they had fetched al l
the cocoons from the i sland by means o f thi s “floating
bridge .” The very last cocoon having been secured
by the ants, one of them returned to the island and ,finding i t empty, she squatted on her haunches , passed
the spur o f her fore - feet th rough her mouth and then
combed her feelers with the spur,s itt ing there for
several minutes in a most provoking attitude,as i f she
were saying to me : “Ah
,my dear
,who has won the
game now ? ” 1 I s thi s fact not a staggering proof,1 ) Th i s very last in stan ce , as many others in th i s tran slat ion ,
was
added by th e author f rom h is original notes .
140 Chapter III.
the last twenty years,I could record here sti l l many
an interesting occurrence,which
,l ike the above exam
ple, impresses a superficial observer as an in tel l igent
action . Yet,clo ser examination invariably p roves
that such fact s are accounted for much more easi ly
and natural ly by the instinct ive combination s of sense
representat ions ; thereforeh no“ant- intel l igence,
” and
in fact no “animal - intel ligence
”at all i s required .
Indeed,the higher mammal s ranking next to man
in brain development are far from supplying more con ~
vincing proofs of“ intel l igence” than ants . In them
a l so the whole proces s o f cogn it ion i s confined to the
mere connecting o f sense representations and sense ex
periences according to the inborn laws of instinct ive
associat ion o f representat ions , which ordinari ly regu
late th ei r l ives . The psychic endowments o f dogs
and monkeys go no farther . Unless a dog has been
special ly t rained, i t never occurs to him to Open a
doo r,the knob o f which he i s unable to reach , by
fetching for instance a foot - stool to gain a higher
level ; he may have seen chi ldren , his play- fel lows ,doing the same thing a hundred t imes ; the relation
between means and end,though so natural and obvious
in thi s case, wil l forever remain h idden to the canine
soul . Hence the dog i s not a whit more intel l igent
than the ants,that fai led to notice, that a l i tt le heap
o f earth would have sufficed to secure them an easy
passage to the honey suspended in a saucer above their
nest.Neither do apes possess the power to invent by
their own reflect ion new means of accompl ishing their
end. Even these highest mammals are confined ex ~
Arch i tecture in the Animal Kingdom. 141
elusively to the instruct ive association o f sense - repre
sentations. We have shown this in our first chapter,where we discussed the wars that take place in the
animal kingdom,and pointed to the fact that apes are
unable to invent the simplest weapons and implements
even . The same holds good as to the u se o f fire . I f
a troop o f apes in the forest h its upon the remnants
o f a fire l ighted by the hands o f man , they wil l cer
tainly gather around it and enj oy the comfortable
warmth . But i t has never, hitherto , occurred to any
ape to supply i t with fuel .1 And yet it would be such
a simple and natural combination o f representations ,requiring but a low degree o f intel l igence . Why do
apes , in sp ite of the“high plasticity o f thei r quasi
human brain , never h it upon such a simple means ?
B ecause they possess no spiri tual soul and therefore nointel ligence. The “plast i c neurozymic act ivities
”o f
the s imian brain are essential ly di ff erent from humanintel l igence ; l ike those o f ants and all lower animal s
they prove to be functions o f me re sensit ive instinct .
I t i s wrong, there fore, to describe ants as instinct ive
automatons , in order to safeguard the intell igence of
the higher animals . The psychic actions o f all animal s
are due to automatism,as far as they are unable to
attain the l evel of reasonable reflection and free sel f
determination . For the rest, however, there i s no
question o f automatism either with lower or with
higher animals , because i t i s sensit ive cognition and not
mere reflex activity,which prompts them to act . It
i s true , that instinct ive act ions have a certain auto
1 ) Cf . Tylo r ( in Ranke,
Der Men sch , I I,l st ed. 436 ) and
Charles E . v. Baer ( in S toe lz le,
“Karl E . v . Baer und seine Wel tan
schauung,” pp . 304,
142 Chapter III.
matic character, inasmuch as they are, to a certain
degree, predetermined by the natural constitution o f
the animal . However, inasmuch as they are governed
by sensit ive cogn ition and appetite and , therefore,capable o f mo re or less modification with in the prede
termined natural l imits , they are not o f an automatic,but o f a spontaneous character .
In conclusion,l et u s sum up the results of our
comparative discussion on architecture in the animal
kingdom . They are : Ants surpass all animals,both
lower and higher, by the quasi- intelligent variabi lity,
the spontaneous self- determination and the power ofsui tab le adaptation, manifested in their arch i tectural
ski ll. N evertheless i t is as certain of them as of any
o ther animal, that they are not endowed with intell i
gence properly so called.
This corroborates the views advanced in our di s
cussion on the di ff erent forms of learn ing .
1 Ants are
able to accommodate thei r buildings to the most varied
conditions ; hence they are able to“learn
” how to
modi fy thei r buildings according to given circum
stances . But thi s learning takes place only in so far as
sense - experience gives rise to new combinations of
representations ; as soon , however ,‘as the modifica
t ion o f their act ivity would require intelligent reflec
tion, or the drawing of conclusions from former con
di tions to the present ones, then both ants and higher
animals , without exception , are all at once incapable
of further learning. This shows to evidence , that the
doctrine of “animal intel l igence” i s utterly untenable .
1 )“D ie psych i schen Faeh igkei ten der Amei sen , pp . 82 - 114 ;
“In
stinct and In te l l igen ce in the An imal K ingdom”
(Herder, St . Loui s ,Mo . , Chap . VI I I.
144 Chapter IV.
plants . The new being comes into exi stence al readyfully endowed with the power of subsistence according
to the laws of merely vegetat ive nature,whether i t be
separated from the mother - organi sm,or remain united
with i t as a new part o f a polyzoal colony. Here,
there fore, i t would be altogether useless to possess
breeding instincts for the propagation o f th e species .
Even among such animal s as propagate through
sexual generat ion , we meet w ith breeding instincts
only where they are required for the preservation o f
the species and the parents care for thei r off
Spring only i n as far as it i s necessary for that purpose .
Within these l imits,however
, we find a wonderful
adaptat ion o f means to the end , and at t imes a mar
velons sagacity of animal instinct,which appears
nowhere el se to such advantage .
But al so nowhere else in the whole animal psycho logy are mani fested so palpably the impotence of
so - cal led animal intell igence and the unsoundness of
the modern tendency o f humanizing animal l i fe . How
should the ephemera know by her own intell igence,”
that she may without any apprehension drop her eggs
into the water ? D oes she perhaps st il l remember,that
her “mother” once upon a time dropped her al so into
the water as an egg ? O r has she perhaps by thestudy o f zoology gained the knowledge that ephemerasneed no hatching ? According to Brehm ’
s psychology
we ought to give the ephemera a thorough scolding
for showing so l itt le motherly love towards her dear
o ff spring and for not caring for thei r wel fare . But
scientifical ly speak ing,such a scolding is as nonsen
sical as i f we were to blame an oak tree for bearing
Care of the Young in the Animal Kingdom.145
acorns instead o f pumpkins,or a hen for laying eggs
instead o f begett ing l ive chicks . Ephemeras flit
about over stagnant pool s and drop their clusters of
eggs into the water ; pearl - fl ies carefully attach their
eggs to a fl imsy peduncle consi sting of a sap hardenedby exposure to the air ; i chneumon—fl ies depos it thei r
eggs in the body o f a caterpi llar by means of thei r
ovipositor ; gall - fl ies introduce thei rs under the rib o f
an oak l ea f,from which later on the gall - nut i s to
grow,serving both as dwell ing and as provis ion store
o f the young larva ; the blue - bottles place thei r eggs
on putre fying flesh,whereas a certain species of wasps
(Pompi lus viaticus) glue theirs to the bodies o f
spiders which they paralyze by skil fu l thrusts o f their
st ing without ki l l ing them,so as to enable the growing
larvae to feed upon l ive flesh ; the common cabbage
butterfly depos it s her eggs on cabbages , the hawk
moth on poisonous spurges , the large clavicorn water
beetl e (Hydrophi lus piceus) weaves for its eggs an
ingenious boat with a l ittl e streamer on top to float
about on the surface of the water, whil st a smaller
all ied species (Spercheus emarginatus) carries its eggs ,as many spiders do, in a bag attached to it s abdomen ;the lea f- rol l ing beetle (Rhynchi tes betulae) cuts a
birch - lea f in a manner implying a difficu lt problem in
applied mathematics , and roll s i t up into the shape o f
an ingenious funnel , in which it deposits i ts eggs ;whil st Rhynchi tes pubescens saws a cradle for i ts eggs
in the wood o f an oak- twig, the ear - wig hatches it s
eggs l ike a hen , whil st L omechusa strumosa,j ust l ike
cuckoos , confides i ts brood to the care Of ants ; they
al l do their duty with equal prudence,but al l too are
10
146 Chapter IV.
ignorant o f the prudence o f their act ions,and uncon
scious o f duty . Under the guidance of sensit ive cog
n ition and perception they fol low the mysterious in
stinctive impulse aris ing from thei r organic develop
ment,which suggests to them the means necessary for
preserving thei r species . But th ey do not understand
the appropriateness o f these means and need not reflect
how to use them to advantage . 1
Wherever in the animal kingdom the care o f the
young requires “ family l i fe,i . e . ,
a regu lar co - habita
t ion o f the parents and o f the young, this task
takes place only as far as the preservation of the
species renders i t necessary . The same organico
instinctive laws,to which breeding i s subj ected in
general , al so determine the existence and firmness o f
family t ies as well a s the extension o f the family circle
with di ff erent species o f animal s . There i s no room
for individual reason and liberty ; and to postu late
them i s not only whol ly superfluous,but al so contra
dicted by innumerable facts . As birds associate in
pairs only during the mating season for the preservat ion o f the species , so in bui ld ing thei r nest and inhatching their young, the two mates co - Operate l ike
wise only as far as i s necessary for preserving their
species ; and the pai rs remain together and in com
pany with thei r young no longer than the same purpose
requires . A ltum ,in h i s excellent book “
Der Vogel
und sein Leben” , has suppl ied u s with a number of
striking instances,proving how ridicu lous and unten
1 ) We have so m inute ly proved th i s fact in th e case of insects thatl ive single , in our book , “
Der Trichterwickler , e ine naturwissen schaf tl iche S tud ie uebe r den Th ier in st inct
”
( Chap . IV . ff ) , th at there i s no
need o f rep eat ing the proo f h ere .
148 Chapter IV.
they had never belonged together . This is a genenal
law of nature, ascertained by science throughout the
whole animal kingdom,setting at naught al l the fine
phrases and sentimental talk o f Brehm on marital and
parental love among animals . And th is gu sh , the
outcome o f erroneous not ions and misplaced sentiment
i s dubbed by thousands of i ts votaries modern animal
psychology !
Care of the young in its most primitive form i s
found among the E chinoderms, namely in a few spe
cies of star - fishes (Asterias Muelleri, rugispina, Cri
brella ocu‘lata) .
1 According to Perrier th e female anima l , by bringing her arms near to the body, forms
a kind o f breeding cavity, in which the young, hud
dl ing together, are enclosed . In the di ff erent classes
between the E ch inoderms and the vertebrates care o f
the young assumes very di ff erent forms , which We are
unable to di scuss here . O f pecul iar psychologicalinterest
,however
,are those animals , among whom the
males and not the females are entrusted with the careo f bui lding nests and rearing the young. The best
known example o f th i s kind among fishes is the
stickle - back (Gasterosteus aculeatus) .
2 In thi s species
the femal es are regular “cannibal stepmothers ,”
whereas the males are model s of“a ff ectionate fath
ers . How ridiculous such facts are,when couched
1 ) .See H.Ludwig, S itzungsber. der Niederrh . Ge se l lsch . fuer
Naturk . (Bonn ) , 1896 , l st ohal f , p . 104 ; besides in “Zoo log . An ze iger,"
No . 534, p . 21 7 and No . 535 , p. 237.
.
2 ) A l so among amph ib ias cases of male hatch ing have been ascer
ta ined. See Fr . Werner in “Verhandl . der Zoo log.
- botan, Gesel lsc h .
von W ien ,
”1898,
l st i ssue , p . 1 1 ff . See al so R . Wie dershe im .
“B rutpflege he i n iederen W irbel thieren (B iolog. Cen tralbl . XX ,
1900,
NOS . 9 and 10 )
Care of the Young in the Anima l Kingdom.
in anthropomorphic language , goes w ithout saying.
1
Some instances o f taking care o f the young occur also
among amphibias . The female of the Surinam toad
(Pipa dorsigera) carrie s her young in the cavities o fher dorsal skin ; whereas in a frog species (Arthro
leptis seychellensis) inhabiting Central America the
young hold on to the back of the male . 2 But quite
universal and commonly known is the care bestowed
by bi rds and mammals upon their young . Yet its
highest per fection,connected with the most perfect
form o f community l i fe in the animal kingdom, does
not occur with the higher mammals , but with the
social insects, i n part icular with ants. Here thi s degree
of pe r fect ion i s made possible by the organic division
o f th e female sex into females proper and into nurses
(workers ) incapable o f generat ion . And although
these are not the mothers o f the children they nurse,
the psychic development o f thei r breeding instinctreaches the greatest perfection in the whole animal
kingdom . Before discuss ing, however, th is aspect o f
the breeding inst inct o f ants , we must first explain it s
connection wi th the laws o f their organic develop
ment .
The bodily diff erentiation o f the members o f an
insect - state into classes and castes , thei r co—habitation
in a common abode , thei r nest - construct ion, acquisi tion
1 ) The f ol lowing amusing quotat ion wil l do f or the purpo se : The
greatest danger th reaten s h im (Mr. St ick le’back ) f rom the mothers o f
h is own ch i ldren . Eager to devour th ei r own o ff spring, they are con
t inual ly dash ing in un ison again st the nest, in wh ich the young are
guarded by thei r watch ful f ather , and but too o f ten the latte r pays thepenal ty o f h is po lygamy” ( Thilo,
“Umb i ldungen an den Gl iedmassen der'
Fische ,
"in
“B iolog . 1897 , l st i ssue , p .
2 )“Zoolog. Jah rb . Abth . fue r Systemat ik,” X I I 89 ff .
150 Chapter IV.
o f food, thei r whole li fe and act ivity have for their
obj ect the care o f the off spring, and thereby the pres
ervation o f the species . The animal colonies o f bum
ble - bees,wasps1 and hornets represent a lower stage
o f community- l i fe,than the perennial colonies of
honey - bees,ant s and termites . In the case of the
former the insect - famil ies and the ent ire community
l i fe have to be establ i shed anew every year by some
hibernat ing female ; but w ith the latter'
the original
famili es l ast severa l years and often much longer , thus
giving thei r community - l i fe a character of stabil ity
and al so o f greater variety and perfect ion .
The organic foundat ion o f i nsect - states,as already
shown above (p . i s polymorphism, or the separa
tion of the individual s into sexual animals and “neu
ters” 2 or workers . The prime duty o f the former is
generation,th i s being the direct means for preserving
the species , whil st the latter perform al l the work
required for the wel fare o f the family,thus in their
turn indirectly contributing to the same end . Without
thi s appropriate divi s ion of labor insect - states would
be impossibl e ; and, as a rule , the more perfect thi s
divi s ion,the more perfectly developed i s the insect
community .
3 In bees , with whom the workers are
1 ) A ccordin g to H . v. Ihering (“Zoolog. Anz. , Vol . X IX
,1896 ,
No . 516 ,p . 449) a large number o f the Brazi l ian soc ial Vesp idae
( P o lybia, Chartergus, etc . ) f orm perenn ial co lon ies f or several years,no t annual ones as our native wasps.
2 ) We have al ready i n Chap . I , No . 2 , re f erred to the f act, that inreal ity they are not , prope rl y speak ing, sexless.
8) The greatest importance must be attached in th i s place to the
d i ff erent iat ion between sexual ind ividual s and workers . Thus e . g. in
the annual co lon ies o f bumb le - bee s there i s a dimorph i sm o f worke rs ,and h ence a more marked divi sion o f labo r th an in the perenn ialco l on ies o f our honey -bee. (On the bumble - bee s see esp . E . H ofi’er
’
s
excel lent observat ion s on the bumble -bee o f S tyria) . Neve rtheless thebee - states are more per f ect than those o f the bumble - bees on accoun t o f
the greater di fference between the i r workers and genuine f emales .
152 Chapter IV.
mammy, that a young rooster became a rooster
and not a j ackdaw,so no intel l igence of the ant i s
responsible for the fact,that from the egg and the
larva which she nurses , there emerges not a bee but an
ant . Al l thi s i s sel f- evident . Yet , the pecul iar organic
laws of development not only form the material
o f the breeding instincts,but al so thei r directing
principle The breeding inst incts of the di ff erent
species are so well adapted to the hidden laws o f
organic growth,that no reflect ion or intel l igence on
the part o f the animal,nay
,not even the keenest human
reason could ever succeed in inventing them . More
over,they are exerci sed by the workers completely and
per fectly,without previous experience or instruction ;
they are innate in the animal , and grow with it ,and when the young ant has reached the perfect ion o f
it s organic development , they, l ikewise, are j ust as
perfectly developed . Hence they must spring from
the same source as the organic growth , that i s to say,they spring from the organico- psychic laws of devel
opment of a gi ven species , and have nothing to do
with individual reason and free determination . As
i t i s by organic development, that the male o f an
ant—species receives also the psychic endowment o f a
male,thus i t i s with the females and the workers . The
distribution o f psychi c endowments in the di fferent
caste s o f an ant—state i s regulated by the same laws
as thei r bodily polymorphism . And thi s alone accounts
for the fact,that with in one and the same species the
males are the most stupid members of the whole state ,possessing the smal lest brains
,whil st the workers are
endowed with many marvelou s instinct ive talents and
Care of the Young in the Animal K ingdom.
even surpass the female s proper in per fect ion of
inst incts and brain develOpment.
1 Those females ,which are dest ined for generat ion
,are provided bv
their organic development with perfect ovaries , whilst
their brain and inst incts are far less perfect . The
workers, on the other hand, which on account o f their
smal l ovaries may be cal led undeveloped females , are
compensated by a more perfect development of the
brain and the instinct ive endowments . Hence , theastonishing prudence displayed by the worker ' ants
and their consequent social leadership are merely a
function of their organic development. This i s the
so - cal led “ intel l igence” and “ intel lectual l i fe” of ants ,viewed in the light o f genuine science !
We have thus far been considering the breeding
instinct s o f ants from thei r organic s ide ; let us, in
the subsequent discus sion , turn our attention to the ir
psychic aspect .
2. Care of the Young among Ants.
The hereditary disposition of the sensit ive cogni
t ion and appetite o f animals , cal led instinct, has in the
case o f ants a wide range and great variety o f actions,
and especial ly so with regard to the breeding instincts,
wherein ants surpass even the h ighest mammals . The
instinct ive di spos it ion i s no mechanical automati sm,
1 ) As to the pedun cles of the ant brain , the sign ificance of wh ichwith regard to psych ic l i f e we have al ready pointed out in a fo rmere ssay, Fo re l says : L es co rps pédoncules sont e
'
normes chez les ouvriere sdu gen re Formi ca, qui ren f erme les f ourmi s les plus inte l l igente s ; et,
chose trés remarquab le , i l s sont plus pet its ch ez les f eme l l es et
beaucoup plus pet its chez les méles du meme gen re (“ Fourmi s de l a
Sui sse,” p . My own observation s confi rm Fore l ’ s statemen ts ; see“ In stinc t and In tel l igence in the An imal K ingdom,
” p . 130 ff .
154 Chapter IV.
but i s gu ided and influenced by various sensit iveaff ections and perceptions . In bee - hives the eggs are
s imply deposited by the queens in the cell s previously
prepared by the workers , and the young bee - larva
goes through the successive stages o f development in
one and the same cel l . With ants breeding shows far
greater variety and independence . The eggs laid by
the queen are received by the workers and gathered in
clusters o f various dimensions . Then from all s ides
they are l icked again and again with the utmost care,
and begin to increase by the endosmosis o f the nour
ish ing j u ice .1 This i s th e first stage in the rearing of
the young in ant - communities . As soon as the egg
has developed into a larva, there fol lows the second ,the feeding and nursing o f the larvae . When the time
for entering the state o f a pupa has arrived , the ant
larvae are carried by thei r nurses to a spot covered
with damp earth,whereupon each larva i s surrounded
by a ca se or l i tt le dome o f earth , within which it spins
its cocoon , enwrapping the whole body . From time to
t ime some worker comes to see whether the cocoon is
finished . As soon as i t i s , i t i s careful ly cleansed of
adhering earth , and i s then stored up in a neat l i ttle
heap in company with others that have reached the
same maturity. With tho se ant - species, whose larvae
do not spin cocoons , the larvae are not encased in earth
be fore thei r pupation . On that account the ex
tremely tender skin o f the pupa unprotected by a
cocoon requires al l the '
more care and caution , le st
grains o f sand or mould should enter between the
1 ) On the growth o f an t - eggs see Forel , Fourm i s de la Sui sse ,
p . 388 ; i t i s o f m inor impo rtan ce , wh ether o r n o t the increase in vo lumeo f an t - eggs be cal led growth in the proper sen se o f the term.
156 Chapter IV .
clean the larvae entrusted to them . Therefore we are
right in expecting,that the same perfection o f the
breeding inst inct s of ants wil l be manifested al so in the
other branches which are not less important for the
preservation o f the species,namely, in the su itable
regulation o f the temperature and in the proper nour
ishment and de fense o f the brood .
In the care o f the young it i s o f th e utmost import
ance to regulate the conditions of temperature in a
manner most advantageous to th is development . In
bee - hives the posit ion o f the brood is determined by
the shape of the comb . Throughout its development
the young bee remains in the same cel l,in which it
was placed as egg, and i t i s therefore constantly sub
ject to the same conditions o f temperature . It i s quite
different with ants . Here the temperature has to be
altered and regul ated by the workers according to
the di ff erent stages o f development . The eggs and
the la rvae in thei r earl iest stage are general ly stored up
in the lowest chambers o f the nest,where the air i s
cool and damp . Further above the hal f- grown larvae
are lodged,whilst the uppermost stories are occupied
by th e ful l - grown larvae and the pupae ; for these
latte r require for th eir development greater heat,which
i s found immediately beneath the surface o f the nest
st ruck by the rays o f the sun . I f out o f doors it
grows chil ly and rainy, the pupae and elder larvae
are immediately carried into the lower chambers,where
they are better protected from cold and moi sture . Thisregulation o f the conditions o f temperature alone
,
according to the necessit ies o f di ff erent stages o f
development, implies astoni sh ing sagacity, such as even
Care of the Young in the Animal K ingdom.157
men would be able to acquire only after years o f
observation and study. Yet, in ants every s ingle wo rker
i s endowed with it as soon as she i s drawn from her
cocoon and has become drv. This i s because thei r
sagacity i s instinctive, essentially di ff erent from intel
l igence and reflection . Ants are in thei r every action
guided directly by sensitive perceptions, not by intel
l ectual ideas . The enigma , therefore , i s sat is factorily
explained by the innate adaptat ion of thei r sensi tive
cognition and appetite,whereas the hypothes is o f ani
mal inte ll igence i s unable to o ff er any solut ion .
But now we come to the most puzzl ing and mys
terious question in the nursing o f ants , namely, the
influence of the education of the young larvae on the
development of di ff erent castes in ant- states. Science
has but j ust now begun to divine the mysteries hidden
here ; but i t i s sti l l far from having fathomed thei r
depths . We shall very briefly place be fore our readers
what i s certain or at least probable concerning thi s
matter . It wil l ful ly suffice to prove, that the nursing
inst incts o f ants , bees and termites are far superior
to those o f birds and mammal s .
According to the older Opinion,thus far commonly
held , and based chiefly on D zierzon’
s classical obser
vations on bees , the sex o f their posterity i s determined
by the inst inctive choice o f the oviparous queen , and
not by the workers that rear the brood . Because it
has been observed , that w ith ant s , bees and wasps
unfe rti l ized eggs produce males only,i t i s assumed
that al so the normal males o f these social insects are
always hatched from unferti l i zed eggs . The queen ,when depositing her eggs
,i s supposed , by either open
1 58 Chapter IV
ing or closing the connection between the oviduct and
the seminal vessel , to control , under the influence of
her oviparous instinct, the fert il ization o f the egg, and
there fore to decide,whether i t would develop into a
ma l e or a female . This inst inct of the queen i s aroused
to suitabl e activity by the pecul iar nature o f the cel l ,into which she puts her head be fore ovipos it ion ; i n
drone—cel l s she puts an unfert i l ized egg, in those o f
a future queen or worker a fert i l ized one. Probablyshe i s led to make thi s difference not so much by the
touch - perception o f the di ff erent shapes o f the cel l s ,but rather by the smel l o f the sal ivary gland secretions
employed by the workers in thei r construct ion .
1 The
pecul iar odor o f th e cell s,however
,as wel l as thei r
s i ze and form is due to the architecture o f the workers ;thus
,in bees the sex o f the o ffspring i s indirectly
at least control led by the instincts of the workers .
With ants i t i s different,because thei r queens do not
deposit the eggs in cell s , but s imply su ff er them to
be received and carri ed away by the workers . The
instinct ive sel f- determination of the oviparous female
seems , therefore , to be greater with ants . O f course ,i t i s very probable
,that the nouri shment and treat
ment o f the queen on the part o f the workers indirectly
al so influences the ovipos it ion ; but in what manner,i s a s yet entirely unknown .
To pass from the queen to the workers , i t was ascer
fained long ago,that
,with social wasps
,bees and ants ,
al so workers , which have smal l ovaries with a reduced
number o f ovarial tubes,and are, besides , unabl e to
1 ) Cf . on th i s po int N . Ludw ig, Futtersaf t oder th ierische Veranlagung, p . 32 ; and p . 57 o f the publ icat ion o f Fe rd . D icke l ment ionedbe low.
160 Chapter IV.
males . l This phenomenon mani fests the marvelous
sagacity and quasi - intell igent plasticity of animal
instinct , which can hardly be styled“automati sm .
”
Neither can i t be identified with i ntell igence properly
so - cal led , for th is would suppose rat ional knowledge
o f the inte rnal laws governing the growth of the ant
organi sm , a knowledge far surpassing even the intell i
gence o f man and‘
entirely beyond the reflections and
experience o f ants . Only the appropriate dispo sit iono f thei r sensit ive cognition and appet i te can account
for the fact, that the perception of a given want is
fol lowed by a co rresponding modification in thei r
nursing inst inct,by which the defect in question i s
remedied .
According to Dzierzon’
s views , which we men
t ioned above, it i s the oviparous instinct of the queens ,that control s the sex o f the bee developed from a
given egg ; in thi s suppo sit ion the worker - bees are
assigned a merely indirect influence . O f late,how
ever , another theory on the di ff erentia t ion of caste s
in bees has been advanced , which assign s to the nurs
ing instinct s o f th e workers a far more extensive
sphere o f action . The originator was an Ital ian priest ,Lanfranch i by name
,who publi shed it in 1894 in the
“Apicoltore . In Ge rmany i t was ‘developed and
confirmed by new experiments , principal ly by Ferd .
D i ckel ,2 the editor o f the“Noerdl inger Bienenze itung.
1 ) More recently H . Rei chenbach has publ ished some obse rvati ons( in
“Bio l . Centralbl . , 1892 , p . 461 if . ) wh ich seem to prove , that withLasius n iger the parth enogen eti c eggs laid by workers may gi ve or iginalso to workers . But f urther confirmation wil l be requi red be f oreaccept ing th i s statement . In No rth America Pro f . W . M . Whee ler haslate ly publ i shed some in tere st ing reports on parthenogene si s in an ts .
2 )“Das Prin cip der Gesch lech tsb i ldung be i Th ieren gesch lech tl i cher
Fortpflan zung,en twicke l t au f G run d lage me iner Bienen f orschungen .
”
Noerdl ingen, 1898 ; c f . especial ly p . 20.
Care of the Young in the Animal Kingdom.161
D i ckel says : Under no rmal circumstances the fer
ti l ized mother - bee lays only fert il ized eggs ; i t i s the
workers, that influence and control the fate o f these
homogeneou s eggs .” According to thi s new opinion ,also those eggs , which in normal bee - hives produce
drones,are fert il ized ; and not only the di ff erent iat ion
between queen and worker, but between queen anddrone
,and between worker and drone , i s due to
the influence o f the sal ivary gland secretions o f the
workers on the eggs previously deposited in the cell s .H ence, D ickel regards both queens and drones only
as the foundation for the development of the sexes,the
workers , however, as the really determining factors .
According to D ickel , certain sal ivary glands o f the
workers contain the secretions determining the sex,
and the di ff erentiat ion of al l the castes in bee - hives
depends on the instinct ive appl ication o f these secre
tions,when the workers are l icking the eggs .
A l though several biologi cal experiments o f other
authors seemed to confirm the theory that under nor
mal conditions all the eggs in a bee - hive are fert i l ized ,1
we must add , nevertheless , that the very exact micro
sc0 p ical studies o f Paulke and Petrunkew itsch on’
the
existence or non - existence o f spermatozoids in th e
eggs o f’
bees rather corroborate the o ld theory o f
D zierzon,according to which the eggs giving origi n
to drones develop without containing any spermato
1 ) Cf . N . Ludwig, Neues ueber E rnaehrungs und insbesondere uebe rFortpflanzungsverhael tn isse der Hon igb iene” (
“Natur und
XLIV, 1898, 12th issue , pp. 705 “We iteres zur neuen Leh re ueber
d ie Gesch lech tsbest immung der Bienen ( ib id. XLV , 1899, 3d i ssue , pp.140 - 148 ;
“We itere Ergebn is se ueber die Fortpfl anzungsverhael tn isse der
Biene” Natur und O ff enbarung,” 1901 , 7 th i s sue, pp . 426
1 1
162 Chapter IV.
zoids.
1 It i s best, therefore, to suspend our j udgmenton thi s problem
,unt i l it i s definitely solved .
I f the new theory o f the fe rt i l izat ion of all the eggs
in a bee- hive,under normal conditions, should prove
true, i t ought to be extended al so to the ants . Hence ,i n ant - colonies
, too , i t would be the workers , who by
thei r nursing instincts determine,whether a given ant
egg i s to produce a worker, a winged female, a soldier,or a male .
We intend here , however, to consider only the
wonderful influence exerci sed by nursing on the di f
ferentiation between females and workers . This i s an
establ i shed fact , quite independent o f the new theory .
Why is i t that one and th e same kind o f egg now
produces a queen with complete power o f generation ,now a worker devoid of generating powers, but com
pensated, as i t were, for th i s loss by psychi c endow
ments al l the more per fect ? Here we enter a mysterious region , where the breeding instincts o f socialin sect s reign supreme
,an instinct which for i ts creat ive
power i s unparal leled in the entire animal kingdom .
It i s a well - known fact , tha t with honey - bees a
worker larva can be developed into a queen by increas
1 ) W. P aulke, in Anatomi scher An zeiger, Vol . XV I , 1899 ; A .
P etrunkewi tsch,
“D ie Rich tungsk ii rper und ihr S ch icksal im be f ruchteten
und unbef ruchteten B ienen ei ,”
(“Zool . Jahrbuecher,
”Ahti . f uer
Anatomic , Vol . X IV,Aug. Weismann
,
“Ueber die P artheno
genese der Bienen” (“Anatom . Anze iger,” Vo l . XVI I I, 1901 , Nos.
H . v. B uttel -Reepen “Ueber die Dzierzon’sche Theorie” (
“Bienenw irtsch f tl . Centralbl 1901 , No.
“Der Ab sch luss der Freiburger
E iuntersuchun gen”( Ib id. , 1901 , No.
“Die Parthen ogenesis bei
der Hon igb iene” Natur und S chule, VoLI, 1902 , 4th i ssue) ; P .
Bachmetiew,
“E in Versuch , die Frage uebe r die Parth enogenese der
Drohnen zu lcesen”(“A l lgem. Zeitschr. f . 1903, Nos. 2
164 Chapter IV.
i s no possibi l i ty of developing into certain forms,there
i s , o f course, no bas is , no material for the exercise of
the nurs ing instincts o f the workers . From thi s it
becomes c lear,why fix ed intermediate forms between
females and workers occur with certain species,dif
ferent fo rms with other species , whilst with others
again there are none at al l . But, within the l imits o f
thi s natural disposition for further development , there
remains to the ants a wide range for exercis ing the irnursing instincts .
These intermediate forms between females and
worker ants I have grouped into s ix classes,but here
we are concerned with but one or two o f them . In
some o f these “eirgatogyne
” forms i t appears almostat a glance, how they came into existence , namely,whether the larva, reared up to a certa in stage to be
a worker,was later on cared for so as to become a
female, or whether the Opposite took place . In the
first case the intermediate form makes the impression ,that the worker- character had been developed to
excess ; i n the second case , that the female character
had been stunted ; in the former the so - cal led worker
l ike (ergatoid ) queens are th e result, in the latter a
kind o f female—l ike workers , which I have named
pseudo - females (pseudogynes) . Th e former combine
the vaulted thorax o f females with the small and
abdominal development o f queens ; the latter unite
the vaulted thorax o f females with the smal l and
stunted abdomens o f workers . Especial ly the latter
form,the pseudogynes, are apparently best accounted
for on the score o f education rather than by a pecul iar
disposit ion inherent in the egg, from which they are
Care of the Young in the Animal Kingdom.
hatched .
1 I know some colonies o f Formica san
guinea, near Exaten,in which these pseudogynes sud
denly made their appearance, became more numerous
in the course o f the next few years , and gradual ly
decreased later on,or di sappeared enti rely. One
co lony (No . 2 1 ) i n 1895 reared every possible pseu
dogyne intermediate form between normal workers
and normal queens ! S ince the queens which lay the
eggs in these nests are unable to change at wil l the
nature of th eir ovaries from year to year,but are
always compel led to lay ferti l ized eggs, capable of
equal development, the origin of those intermediate
forms is probably due to changes in the manner ofnursing,
and to modifications in the very nursing
instincts o f the workers . This supposition is con
firmed by the fact , that in F. sanguinea there is a
certain causal relation between the origin of pseu
dogynes and the education of the larvae of a genuine
ant-
guest, the beetle L omechusa strumosa. I have
ascertained th i s mysterious connect ion by means o f
my stat ist i cs embracing 4 1 0 sanguinea colon ie s w ith in
a radiu s o f several ki lometers around Exaten ; these
stati stics wil l be publi shed later on in some scientific
periodical . 2 Here it may suffice to ment ion,that the
centres o f propagation o f the pseudogyne forms and
o f the L omechusas are always together in the same
1 ) See my recen t pub l i cat ion , Neue B estaetigungen der L omechusa
Pseudogynen Theo rie (“Verhandl . der Deutsch . 2 0 0 1. 190"
pp . 98 - 108 and P1. I I) , where th i s th eo ry i s extended al so to No rthAmer ican ants . See be low ( the f o l lowing sect ion , p . 179 f o l l . and the
plate oppos ite p .2 ) The beginn ing o f th ose stat i st ic s dates back to 1895 Die
ergatogynen Formen bei den Amei sen und ih re Erklaerung ,
” “Bio l .1895 , Nos. 16 and
166 Chapter IV .
or at l east in neighbo ring nests . The number of
colonies,in which I found L omechusas i s more
than,three times as great as th at o f nests containing
pseudogynes (33) these are the centers, from which
the L omechusas gradually spread to the neighboring
nests,where by and by they cause the bi rth o f pseu
dogynes. I t i s scarcely poss ible, that the presence o f
these beetles and o f thei r larvae,which are fed by the
workers , should have a modi fying influence on the
ovaries o f the queens, but , probably they do so on
the nursing inst incts o f the workers . My recent
observations and experiments unt i l 190 4 have con
firmed thi s solution o f the interest ing problem .
Some o f the above mentioned intermediate ant
forms are u seful for the preservat ion o f the colony
and the species, whil st others are more or less indi f
ferent,and st i l l others positively hurt ful , being prob
ably pathological deform i t ies . The rearing o f worker
l ike, W ingless queens among the Amazon ant s (P olyer
gus rufescens) , for instance , i s very appropriate ,because thei r colonies are rathe r rare and far di stant
from one another . There fore , the probabil ity i s very
sl ight,that on thei r nupt ial fl ight the winged sexes
w il l meet with those o f other colonies ; and besides ,thi s specie s has to encounter except ional d iff i cult ies in
founding new settlements by means o f s ingle fertil i zed
females , s ince the Amazons are enti rely dependent on
the help o f their slaves . The wingless queens , on the
other hand, cannot go far from their nests ; and a fter
they have been impregnated by the winged males ,some strol l ing slaves can easi ly find them in the
ne ighborhood and bring them home aga in ; hence i t
168 Chapter IV
i f they had but a Spark o f intel l igence , sad experiences
would have enl ightened them long ago on the fol ly
of this mistake . Nay more,i f the pseudogynes owed
thei r origin to the normal nursing instincts o f ants ,we should have to despai r o f the fitness o f animal
inst inct and even of the wi sdom o f the Creator . What
i s the key to thi s mystery ? It i s the beetle L omechusa
strumosa. A ccording to our hypothesi s the rearing
of the pseudogynes i s an aberration of the breeding
inst inct o f ants, caused by the continuous educat ion
of L omechusa- larvae . In the "economy of nature it
i s the duty o f thi s beetle, to check the excessive
increase o f the ant—speci es , whose hospital i ty i t enj oys .
For th i s reason its larvae not only consume co‘untless
ant - eggs and ant - larvae,— the ants calmly looking on
the while,— but by destroying the o ff spring of the
ants , and by th e care which the ants bestow on them ,
they cause the degeneration of the normal nursing
instincts of the workers, result ing in the education ofcrippled pseudogynes.
1 To account for these facts on
the score of “indivi dual animal intell igence would
1 ) Th ese exposit ions w ill probabl y suff ice al so to re f ute an obj ec t ionrai sed by D r. G. Adlerz, who , m isunderstand ing my psychological explanation of the rearing o f pseudogynes, says i n the th ird part o f h is
valuable “Myrmeco logiska studier” ( S to ckholm , p . 51 :“W i th
regard to th i s Wasmann seems inc l ined to credit an ts with an exag
gerated power o f reflection , wh ich he otherwise i s unwill ing to do .
Besides, the pathological degenerat ion o f the b reeding inst inct explains ,why the rearing o f pseudogynes i s s ti l l cont inued, even wh en co lon ieshave been deprived o f th ei r L omechusas. By th e way, let me repeata remark f o rmerl y made , that the causal connection of pseudogynes withthe L omechusas i s not to be con f ounded with the exp lanat ion o f th i sconnect ion . The f ormer seems to be fi rml y estab l i shed by di rect observat ion , th e latter i s st i l l an hypoth esi s
,but an hypothesi s , strongly con
fi rmed by recent experimen ts o f myse l f and o f V i chmeyer . See“Neue
B estaet igungen der L omechusa- Pseudogyn en theorie”
(“Verhandlungen
der Deutsch . 2 0 0 1. 1902 , p . 98 FL ) .
Care of the Young in the Animal Kingdom.
involve u s in endless and hopeless contradictions .They are explainable only from the standpoint of a
higher, teleological consideration of nature, which
does not presume to replace the wisdom o f the Creator
by the intel l igence o f animals .”
The phenomena in the nursing o f ants mentioned
above can be ascertained only by close,scientific
observat ion . But some other features are known to
every amateur in the study o f ants , and do not escape
even the most casual observer. Th e first thing that
strikes our attention i s the great attachment di splayed
by the . workers for thei r charges . They careful ly
guard them against eve ry disturbance , and at the ri sk
of thei r own l ives they exert al l thei r strengt h in ward
ing o ff hosti le invaders . The whole colony i s seized
with frenzy, i f an attempt i s made to rob them of
thei r larvae and pupae .1 Merely thrust your stick
into a hil lock o f wood - ants ! At once there ensues a
tumultuous uproar and masses of workers rush forth
to rout the enemy . But i f you happen upon a chamber
fil l ed with pupae and attempt to take away the cocoons ,the fury of the ants reaches i ts cl imax . Like an army
o f raging furies they fal l upon the assai lant,viciously
biting and ej ect ing their poison . Hundreds and thou
sands are crushed by the enemy, but other hundreds
and thousands are eager to face the carnage . No
lioness,no she - monkey ever defends her young with
the heroi sm displayed by ants . Workers wil l rather
1 ) Th i s i s the case with spec ies otherwise very peace - loving, e . g . ,
with the large American leaf - cutt ing ants o f the genus A tta. On opening a nest o f A tta sexdens in Rio Frio ,
Fore l even had an ar tery o f h is
l itt le finger pierced by a large -headed worke r . See Fore l, “Zur Fauna
und Leben swe i se der Amei sen im Co lumb isch en Urwald” ( “Mi tthe i l . derSchweiz . Entom . Vo l . IX, 9th i ssue , p .
170 Chapter IV.
su ff er thei r heads to be torn o ff , than yiel d to the
enemy the pupae they carry in their j aws . And yet,i t i s not even for thei r own chi ldren, that they
“ sacri
fice themselves so unselfish ly ;” their charges are but
thei r foster - chi ldren . But that higher natural law ,
which has made preservation o f the species th e fore
most instinct ive commandment implanted in the ani
mal soul,thi s natural law , I say, al so constrains the
worker- ants to risk l i fe and l imb in behal f o f beings
begotten by others . This commandment they observe
faith ful ly, not led by any sense o f duty or by noble
forget fulness o f sel f, but by an irresist ible, inst inct ive
impulse implanted in them by Another, and to which
they yield obedience,not intell igently or voluntari ly ,
but urged on by a bl ind necessity o f nature !
To credit animal s with intel l igence , to ascribe to
them ever so faint a trace o f intel lectual knowledge o f
the purpose o f thei r actions , wil l necessarily lead to
extoll ing the sel f- sacrifice o f the single workers forthe wel fare o f the colony and especial ly for the young,as a high degree o f quas i - human, nay o f superhuman
vi rtue . And in fact , L . Buechner , E . Haeckel,Th .
Eimer, O . Zacharias and other modern animal psychol
ogists have actual ly ventured such assertions .1 O f
course , thei r only commendation i s thei r boldness , but
it i s a boldness leading to the greatest absurdities .
What i s it then, that impels th e ants to such heroic
devotedness and sel f- sacrifice for the offspring o f
thei r colony ? I s it perhaps motherly love” ? No ;for the workers are but the si sters or aunts o f thei r
1 ) Wasmann,
“Die zusammengesetzten Nester und gemi sch ten
Ko lon ien der Amei sen ,
” pp . 190 and 191 .
172 Chap ter‘
IV
inte l l igence and animal ethics is hopelessly
involved .
The nursing instinct of ants with al l i ts devoted
ness and unselfishness,
” i s therefo re nothing el se than
a purely inst inct ive impulse guided and determined
in its operations only by sensitive impressions and not
by i ntel lectual concepts . Under normal ci rcumstances
this inst inctive impulse i s appropriately regulated , and
mani fests it sel f as th e product o f sel f- sacrificings isterly love .” But
,i f the abnormal i rri tat ion o f the
nervous system o f the ants , caused by parthenogenes i s ,has di sturbed the normal sphere o f sensit ive impres
sions,then si ste rly love i s not changed into motherly
love,but into “barbarous
,unfeel ing cannibal i sm”
!
Modern animal psychology evidently toys in a
rather frivolous manner with the term “motherly
love ,” by applying it to the nursing in st incts found
among animal s . Nor can the plea be advanced,that
with higher animals matters are quite di ff erent than
with ants ; for, we have proved above,that the nurs
ing inst incts o f ants far surpass in perfection those o f
birds and mammal s, not only by their quasi - intel l igent
sel f- determination in the method of education,but
al so by the great unselfishness mani fested in nouri sh
ing and defending their young. I f there should be
any di ff erence at al l , it i s in th i s , that in the care o f
thei r off spring the higher animal s betray for less“ intel l igence” and for less
“ individual l iberty,
” than
i s found in ants . Moreover,i t i s a well - known fact
,
that domesti c pigs not seldom devour some o f their
l itter ; yet p igs are“higher animal s . ” In such cases
,
however, the sow sins as l i ttle against good moral s,
Care of the Young in the Animal Kingdom.
as worker - ants do by devouring their own eggs ; for,moral ity presupposes reason and free - will ; reflection
and consciousne ss o f duty, all o f which are wanting
throughout the animal kingdom, being the exclusiveprivi lege of man .
That animals in caring for thei r young are not l edby reason
,but only by sensitive emotions and repre
sentations, becomes evident especial ly from the phe
namena of adoption in the animal kingdom . There
fore these shall form the subj ect of the following
section .
3. Adoption Instincts in the Animal K ingdom.
The tendency to adopt the o ff spring of strangers
i s shown by al l those animal s which,to preserve thei r
species,are forced to bestow great care on their own
progeny. This tendency is found among ants not
only with regard to th e eggs , larvae and pupae o f
other colonies o f thei r own species or o f all ied species ,but also with regard to members o f altogether di f
ferent orders of insects , l iving in thei r communities .
These adop t ion instincts are responsible for the mixed
colonies o f slave - making ants,the robbed pupae o f the
slave - species being nursed as careful ly a s others,either
by the masters or by the slaves al ready present'
in the
nest . To the same instinct of adoption must be
referred the care bestowed by th e ants on thei r gen
nine g uests or other nest - mates be longing to di ff erentorders o f insects, but above all , the sol ici tude
with which they rear the larvae of certain beetles
(L omechusa, A temeles,Xenodusa) and the eggs o f
several kinds o f p lantl ice . Th e adj oining il lustrat ion
174 Chapter IV.
shows th e beetle L omechusa strumosa so often referred
to,and one o f i ts larvae, magnified to four t imes their
natural s ize .
Fig. 4. Fig. 5 .
L omechusa strumosa F . Ful lg ro wn.
larva o f L omechusa
(Magn ified ) strumosa . (Magn ified )
The same adoption instinct occurs also with birds ,although not so seemingly intel l igent as with ants .
The best - known example i s the hen , that readilyhatches eggs o f other hens , ducks , geese , turkeys ,etc ., and extends to al l her adopted chi ldren the same“motherly care,
” she would show to her own chicks .
G . Romanes 1 succeeded even in making a hen the
foster-mother o f some young ferrets, which he had
substituted for the art ificial eggs , on which she was
hatching. The numerous species o f birds, which
tend the young cuckoos , fol low the same l ine o f conduct, the only di ff erence being, that they lavi sh sti l l
greater care on these changel ings, because they Open
thei r mouths wider in crying for food than their own
nestl ings . The adoption instinct,
final ly,i s met with
among mammals , the most blood—thi rsty carnivores not
excepted . Though i t i s a fable , that ancient Rome
1 )“Mental Deve lopment in the An imal K ingdom.
176 Chapter IV
animals i s a sensual impulse , not guided by reason
and reflection .
This organico - sensitive nature of the nursing
instinct also explains,why it often extends to th e
helpless off spring o f other species,whose inst inctive
behavior i s somewhat s imilar to that o f the animal'
s
own progeny. Th e sense - perception of these helpless
beings stimulates the nursing inst inct o f the old ones ,and therefore they “adopt” the young ones o f
strangers . The smel l o f th e l arvae o f L omechusa
strumosa i s especial ly attract ive to the sanguine slave
makers ; 1 besides these larvae instinct ively mimic the
attitudes and behavior o f the ant - l arvae,and although
they possess six feet , they do not make use o f them,
but conduct themselves l ike helpless ant- la rvae . For
these reasons they enj oy the most careful attention on
the part o f th ei r hosts . And as these beetl e - larvae,
when fed by the ants , grow much faster than the ant
larvae,they impress the instinct ive nursing impulse o f
the ants far more favorably than the latter, and hence
are the obj ects o f “greater tenderness .” At any dis
turbance o f the nest the workers first care for thei r“adopted ch ildren” and bring them to a place o f safety
,
before they attend to thei r own o ff spring ; yea , they
even neglect the rearing o f the latter , thei r only care
1 ) That the an ts do not con f oun d tho se co leopterous larvae wi thth e i r own on accoun t o f thei r shape and co lor, I asce rtained
,in May .
1 897 , by experiments with larvae o f An thonomus pomomm,wh ich are
f ar mo re sim ilar to ant - larvae than tho se o f L omechusa. The Antho
n amus- larvae were in stan tl y se i zed as prey and torn to pieces by the
sangu ineas o f my ob se rvat ion nest . On the who le, i t must not be
imag ined that the L omechusa - larvae make the same impression as the i rown on the sen sit ive percept ion o f the an ts ; the impression i s at mostsim i lar , but more agreeab le , wh ich probably explain s why the ants pre f erth e adopted larvae to th e i r own .
Care of the Young in the Animal K i ngdom. 177
being thei r L omechusa- la rvae, so dear to them on
account o f their quicker growth and their better
appetite . It does not aff ect the ants in the least , that
the L omechusa- la rvae again and aga in devour theeggs and young larvae of the ant colony by the wholesale ; on the contrary, they even carry these change
l ings to the clumps o f eggs and la rvae to faci l itate
thei r work o f dest ruction . Unless a superior Wisdom
had provided that the ants themselves , by thei r stupid
aff ection , prevent the excessive increase o f the Lome~
chusa populat ion , the number o f these guests would
become so large as to destroy all the sanguinea
colonies . But there i s no danger of any such calamity ;for
,the ants deal with the L omechusa- larvae during
thei r pupat ion j u st as they do with thei r own, imbed
ding them care ful ly in a vault o f earth . A fter a
short time,the ant - l arvae having meanwhile spun
the i r cocoons , are again removed from the earth .
This latter measure appl ied to the L omechusa- larvae
proves fatal to them . The larvae o f these beetles do
not Spin a sol i d cocoon , but only an extremely fl imsy,s i lken web
,whi ch tears as soon as they are unearthed ;
soon a fter the L omechusa- l arvae are again careful ly
imbedded at some other place then they are taken
out again , carried about, aga i n imbedded, unti l atl ength they become dry and perish . In thi s manner
the fol ly o f the ants causes most o f the L omechusa
larvae to die before they are changed into pupae ; and
even those, which have fortunately entered the state of
a pupa, are o ften unearthed by the ants and devoured ,—perhaps from an excess o f a ff ection ? According
to my long continued observations on the development12
178 Chapter IV.
o f L omechusa strumosa in normal sanguinea- colonies
only those larvae escape destruct ion , which , after hav
ing been imbedded in thei r l ittle cave , are forgottenby the ants ; al l the rest are hopele ssly doomed ; o f
1 0 0 larvae , there fore , at most about 1 0 reach the stage
of imago , sometimes scarcely one. For instance in
the observat ion nest i l lustrated on p . 2 3 in May, 1896 ,
about 1 50 L omechusa- la rvae , the o ff spring of I OL omechusas, were reared under the most favorable
conditions both o f nutri tion and temperature ; from
these 1 50 larvae I obtained— one single L omechusa !
For thousands o f years and in thousands of normal
colonies F. sanguinea year after year repeat the same
senseless performance : first,with the greatest
devotedness they nurse the L omechusa- l arvae , even
allowing their own o ff spring to be devoured by them ;then
,thei r stupid aff ection does no t allow them to
leave the larvae in peace during the t ime of pupation ,and finally they devour the pupae . They cannot see
that during thei r pupat ion L omechusa—la rvae are to
be treated di ff erently from those o f ants ; but th i s i s
thei r salvation ; for otherwi se their care o f the Lome
chusas would long ago have brought about the ruin
of thei r own race . One and the same superior Wisdom has designed
,that on the one hand the increase
o f the ants be checked by thei r inconsiderate love for
L omechusa strumosa and for the i r l arvae,and that on
the other hand the spread o f thi s beetle be kept w ithin
l imits by the very same unreasonable aff ection o f the
ants . By these means so gentle and yet so eff ective,D ivine Wisdom i s able to maintain the equil ibrium innature . In the face of such phenomena , the defenders
180 Chapter IV.
quarters . The rapid increase of pseudogynes in that
colony, therefore, was in proport ion to the number of
beetle - larvae which had successfully developed in the
same nest that year.
It i s, therefore, necessary to assume, that in san
guinea colonies the frequent rearing o f L omechusa
larvae gradual ly modifies the normal nursing instinct
of the ants. This modification i s mani fested partly by
the production o f th e crippled pseudogynes, partly by
the more appropriate treatment o f the L omechusa
larvae which , after having been imbedded in thei r
cradles, remain undi sturbed . Ants , therefore, grad
ually l earn to modi fy thei r nurs ing inst inct . I s not
th i s a proo f’
o f intel l igence ? True, thei r sensit ive cog
nition guiding thei r instinct ive activit ies may furnishthe immediate occasion for that two - fold modificat ion .
But we have proved in a former essay, in discussing
the diff erent forms o f l earning,1 that not every modi
fication o f the hereditary instinct , occasioned by sense
experiences, i s due to intel l igence, but only that, which
mani fests a knowl edge of the apprOpriateness o f a
given action. I f ants were gi fted with intell igence ,they could not help understanding, that by improvingthei r treatment o f th e L omechusaAarvae, they cause
thei r colony but to peri sh the sooner, j ust as they con
demn i t to utter destruction by rearing pseudogynes.
The latter modificati on o f the nursing instinct, which
leads to the rearing o f cripples , can only be apathologi cal symptom , pointing to a morbid dis
turbance o f the normal, organic condition of that
1 )“Die psych i schen Faehigke iten der Ame i sen , p , 111 ;
“In
stinct and Intel l igence in the Animal Kingdom,
” Chap. 8.
Fig . 1 . Fig . 2 .
Fig . 3.
(Al l figures magnified to seven times the ir na tura l size .)
182 Chapter IV.
made, e. g., by Wil l iam Marshal l in hi s“L eben und
Treiben der Ameisen” (p . where he speaks o f
the care given by ants to the eggs o f p lantl ice. Sev
eral ant - species o f the genus Lasius col lect the eggs
o f certain Aphides in th ei r nests . Being care fully
protected during winter,the young aphides in spring
are carried to the plants on which they find thei r food .
Thence Marshal l infers , that the ants tend the eggs
with the in tel ligent purpose of enj oying later on the
sweet secret ions o f the aphides . “This i s surely a
very strange phenomenon,he says ,
“which proves
perhaps better than anything else the high degree ofintel ligence attained by ants . We must credit them
with a considerable power of observation and we must
own, that they have studied, to a certa i n degree, the
habits o f their domesticated animals ,” etc. Yet th i s
bold conclusion is entirely unfounded . How does
Marshal l know, that the ants gather the eggs o f the
aphides with th e intel l igent purpose o f rearing
aphides ? That there i s some connection between the
eggs o f the aphides and the aphides themselves is ,indeed
,for many ants a subj ect o f sensit ive knowl
edge and experience ; but it i s unwarrantable to mis
take th is process o f instinctive association for intell i
gence proper . Even i f ants in real i ty tended the eggs
o f aphides only on account o f a combination o f their
sensi tive experiences,this would be as yet no proof
of the ir intel l igence , but merely of thei r memory .
In real ity,however , the case i s d i ff erent . Take a few
newly developed workers o f a Lasius nest and unite
them to form an autodidactic colony, restricted to it s
innate inst inct s w ithout a shadow o f experimenta l
Care of the Young in the Animal Kingdom.
knowledge as to the development o f aphides . Entrustthem with eggs o f those aphis - species
,which their
congeners are wont to rear and to nurse . They will
treat them as though they had previously studied
the habits o f these aphides ! Hence the fondness o f
certain ant - species for the eggs of aphides i s a merely
instinctive impulse, which , o f course, can be strength
ened by sensit ive experience . I t was rather rash for
Mr. Marshal l to proclaim it boldly as “a faculty of
taking the future in to accoun t.”
A l fred Espinas was
far more correct in call ing the aphis - nursing o f ant s
an “ intell igence non réfléch ie,” i . e.,
merely analogous
to human reason,having but a faint s imilarity to
intel l igence proper, the diff erence being not merely of
degree but o f kind .
1 This analogum rationis i s s imply
an instinct ive association of representations,assisted
by~
sensitive experience.
In Sp ite o f the perfect ion attained in thei r nurs ing
of p lantl ice, the Lasius species are far inferior to the
Formica spec ies i n what modern animal psychology
erroneously styles intell igence,viz : in the abil i ty to
profit for the future by past experiences . I t wil l be
interesting,there fore
,to examine
,in how far the latter
ant - species,in taking care of thei r o ff spring,
“con
sciously foresee the future .
”
Whenever care i s taken o f the young,then also the
future is instinctively taken into account, above al l
in the rearing o f the female ant - l arvae ; for i t
depends entirely on modifications in the nursing,whether th e fert il ized egg wil l produce a female
proper or a worker . But only uncritical popular
1 )“ Sociétés an imales” (2d pp. 157 , 188, etc.
184 Chapter IV.
psychology is able to confuse instinctive intention andinstinctive foresigh t with intelligent intention andintel ligent foresight. This i s made evident by the
fol lowing facts . The beetles o f the genus A temeleshave thei r larvae reared by certain Formica- species
,
A temeles emarg inatus by F. fusca,A temeles paradoxus
by F. rufibarbis, A temeles pubicoll is by F. rufa, A temeles pratensoides by F. pratensis. The young A temeles having success ful ly reached their full develop
ment, either quit the Formica nests or are driven out of
them . They then move over to Myrmica rubra1 and
spend the greater part o f thei r l ives in the nest s o f
these ants, by whom they are l icked and fed. Only inspring, in the mating season , they return to thei r
respect ive Formica species, where they al low thei r
o ff spring to be reared at the expense o f the ant—larvae .For whom , then, are these
“Formica species nursing
the young A temeles ? Not for themselves,but for
the Myrmica species . The only consequence o f thei r
adopting the Atemeles- larvae i s the immense damage
infl icted on thei r own eggs and larvae by these vora
cions changel ings . Where now is “the faculty o f
intel l igently taking the future into account ,” with
wh ich Marshal l credits hi s ants ? For thousands of
years the Formica again and again have had the sad
experience,that the pains bestowed on these beetle
larvae are but love ’ s labor lost .” 2 I bel ieve that i f
1 ) Th i s o lder col lect ive name compri ses Myrmica scarbrinodis,
Iaevinodis, rug inodis, sulcinod is and rugulosa.
2) The same appl ie s to the education o f the larvae o f the NorthAmer ican Xenodusa in th e ne sts o f Fo rmi ca Spec ie s ; f or, the Xenodusa
are f ound as ful lgrown beetles with other ants, especia l ly o f the genusCamponotus.
186 Chapter IV.
more and more in the toil s o f their treacherous guestsIn the face o f such facts animal intel l igence” i s alto
gether untenable . On the other hand, these factsfurnish a new argument proving the correctness o f
our explanation o f the psychic act ivit ies of animals .
Birds which nurse the unfledged cuckoos , do not
behave a whi t more reasonably than the ants with
regard to thei r L omechusa—larvae . Because the young
cuckoo opens its bi l l wider,makes more noise and
wiggles i ts stumpy wings more energetical ly, i t s“ foster - parents” feed it with special devotedness , and
rather su ff er thei r own young to starve . Moreove r
they calmly look on,whil st the young cuckoo pushes
thei r own off spring over the edge o f the nest to make
them fa l l to the ground ; indeed it has been observed ,that the foster- parents assi st in thi s work .
1 Among
birds,too
,the nursing and adopting instincts are due
to the very same laws of sensit ive l i fe as in ants .
There is no di scrimination between their own o ff
spring and that of others,no idea o f consanguini ty,
”
o f“parents or chi ldren
,
” but everywhere we wit
ness the same unreasoning dependence on inst inctive
sense - impressions,the appropriateness o f wh ich for
the wel fare o f thei r own or of strange species e scapes
the sensit ive knowledge of the animal .
This i s mani fest al so in the care bestowed on their
young by the highest mammal s , the apes . Just as
with in the same species of ants eggs , larvae, and
pupae are a kind of international property, and are
there fore received and nursed al so by other colonies ;as the eggs o f e ider ducks , o f hens and other birds
1 )“Westfalens Thi erleben , I I , 22
Care of the Young in the Animal Kingdom.187
have the same international character,extending even
to the rearing o f the young developed therefrom ; as
in many ants and birds the inst inct of adoption,which
i s founded on the external resemblance between the
nursl ings o f strangers and the ir own , i s now and then
extended to entirely di ff erent species (L omechusa,
cuckoo ) : so there i s in apes a s imi lar inst inct owing
to the same psychological causes , which proves to
evidence the lack o f intel l igence in animals . “I t i s a
wel l - known fact , as the th i rd ed . of Brehm’
sTierleben
(p . 52 ) has it , that apes , without much ado, adopt
the ch ildren o f any other species,protect them with
the utmost tenderness , and can scarcely be separated
from thei r dead bodies . When our shepherd—dog
Trina would present us again with young puppies
swarm ing with fleas,we used to put them into a cage
of marmoset s . There they were heart i ly welcomed ,cleaned and fondled with care and tenderness , whi lst
from without the old dog was watch ing with a know
ing look (sic) . But as soon as we deprived them
o f thei r nurs l ings,the monkeys would set up a pitiable
screaming : they had distributed the pups among
their number and evidently intended (si c) to keep
them .
” The anthrOpomorph ism , with which modern
fanatics in the matter o f animal intel l igence t ry to
varni sh over the true character of these adoption phe
nomena, must be merci lessly exposed by genuine , cri t
i cal psychology . We wish to picture the psychic l i fe
o f the animal s such as it i s in itsel f, and not as it
exi sts in the imaginat ion of would - be psychologists .
That the incl inat ion o f apes to adopt the off springo f other apes , o f dogs , cats , rabbits, Guinea- pigs, and
188 Chapter IV.
even of man is an entirely instinctive impulse devoid
o f intell igent reflection , i s so evident to logical minds
and so plainly expressed in the facts,that further
proof seems superfluous . S ince with apes the two
sexes di ff er far less in psychic endowments than with
ants , i t can hardly be surpris ing, that not only the
females but also the males have an instinctive nursing
incl inat ion , and try to grati fy i t by nursing any young
animal . But how do they do i t, especial ly i f the youngones belong to another species ? Al fred Brehm says,1“Here the ape often appears to be an inexplicabl e
puzzle. He nurses h i s adopted favorite to the ful l
extent o f his power,hugs him
,cleans h im
,continual ly
keeps an eye on h im , but generally does not supplyhim wi th any food. Without pangs o f conscience
(sic) , he keeps for himsel f the food destined for hi snursl ing, and even care ful ly keeps him away from the
pot,whil st he himsel f i s eating. This I have observed
with baboons , who had picked up young dogs or cats
as thei r foster - ch i ldren .
I s th is real ly an “inexplicable puzzle
”? Only forthose who are unwi lling to understand the correct
solution , because they are bl inded by thei r monomania
on animal intell igence . The solution of the puzzle i s
as cl ear as day- l ight . The instinct s both o f nursing
and o f eating are purely sensi tive inclinations, unat
tended by reason and reflect ion . The faculties o f
sensit ive cognition and appetite are so appropriately
di sposed in animals,that wi th regard to their own
offspring the nurs ing inst inct i s stronger than hunger,but only so long as the young o f that species , under
1) Ib idem,p . 51.
190 Chapter IV
Let us bri efly sum up the results o f our discus
s ion on the nursing instinct o f animals . In th is respectal l animals obey the same psycholog i cal laws . Everywhere the incl ination o i nurs ing and rea ring the youngproves to be a sensi tive instinct, enti rely di ff erent from ,
and even excluding,individual reflection and conscious
ness o f duty . This is the case both in the high est
mammal s and in ants ; for the latter even far surpass
the highest mammals by their quasi - intel l igent freedom
o f choice in rearing the different castes , and by an
attachment to their charges verging on heroic unsel
fishness. With all animals the care o f the young is
directed exclusively by sensitive impulses and percep
tions,which
,under normal circumstances , are su itably
regulated both for preserving their own species and
for maintaining the equil ibr ium between d i ff erent
species . Yet thi s appropriate correlation i s far beyond
the ken of the animal ; hence , in the nursing o f an i
mal s there is no que st ion o f any “consciousness o f
duty . Man alone by virtue of h i s intel lect perceives
the relations of consanguinity and the connections
resul t ing therefrom ; he alone has an intellectual
notion of “parents” and “chi ldren” ; only with him
can there be question o f the moral duties of parents
toward the i r ch i ldren . True, al so in man motherly
love is founded on a sensi tive instinct ; but , at th e
same t ime,i t i s spiri tual, because the mother knows
that she i s the mother o f this ch i ld, and because thi s
knowledge with the resultant consciousness of the
duty of attending to the wel fare o f the child, l asts for
l i fe . In man the love of parents toward their ch il
dren and the care they bestow on them rises far above
C are of the Young in the Animal K ingdom. 191
the sphere o f sensitive inst inct into the province of
sp iritual ity and morali ty : and because the love o f a
mother is a rational love, conscious of duty, therefore i t i s the highest and noblest love exi st ing in
nature . To ascribe such motherly love to animal s ,as do modern psychologists , i s nonsense, scientifically
Speaking,and moral ly speaking it i s a degradation o f
human dignity.
CONCLUS ION
OT to exceed the l imits of thi s publ ication, we
must refrain from pointing out other paral lel s
exist ing between the psychic l i fe o f ants and that o f
the other animals . In part icular, the extremely vari
ous ways o f gaining a l iving,prevalent in ant - com
munities, would furni sh plenty of material . But in
thi s essay we had to confine ourselves to a few stray
remarks on that subj ect (p . What we have
dilated upon may suffice, however, to furnish a posi
t ive and rel iable answer to the question,with which
we introduced our essay,namely : Are animals en
dowed wi th instinct only, or also wi th intell igence?
We have already proved in a former publication
( Inst inct and Intel l igence in the An imal K ingdom ) ,o f which the present study i s a confirmation
,that
modern animal psychology influenced by so - called
popular psychology,has inverted and con fused the
notions o f sensit ive cognition and of intel l igence .
That which i s popularly styled animal intell igence,i n as far as it i s based on real facts and not on fables
and anecdotes,i s nothing but the faculty o f the ani
mals o f forming complex representations o f thei r
sensit ive experiences and o f acting appropriately inaccordance with them . But thi s power as wel l as the
immediate instinctive cognition i s due to the innatelaws of associations o f sensit ive representations and
aff ect ions ; hence it belongs to the sphere o f sensi tive
192
194 Conclusion.
form certain actions, which are independent of indi
vidual experience and are more or l ess the same in
al l individual s o f a given species . It i s plastic, inas
much as within thi s l imited sphere, the powers o f
cognition and appetite in the animal are given more
or l ess play for variously modifying their activit ies .
The narrower the l imits within which they are con
fined,the more automatical ly thei r inst inct wi ll cause
them to act ; the wider those l imits , the more plasti c
their instinct. Both elements,automatism and plas
ticity, are found in di ff erent proportions with all
animals from the highest to the lowest . In the lower
orders automati sm, as a general rule, largely prevail s ,whereas in the higher vertebrates plasticity i s
,on the
average, more predominant. Ants,too
,more than
dogs and apes, are bound by heredi tary laws to the
performance o f certain act ivities . The varying
influence, which individual sensation brings to bearupon the performance o f hereditary instincts , i s greater
and more variable in the latter than in the former,and in thi s respect the psychi c l i fe o f ants is more l ike“automati sm” than that of mammals . But
,on the
other hand, the plasticity o f the inst inct i s , al so in
ants , often highly developed , and not rarely i t i s
mani fe sted in a more quas i - intel l igent form,than even
in the highest vertebrates .
In the present essay we have reviewed a number
o f the most prominent phenomena o f the psychic l i fe
o f animals and everywhere we found,that
,what
modern an imal p sychology styles animal intell igence,
i s met with al so in ants and in many cases , in fact , in
a higher degree than with th e h ighest mammals . In
Conclusion.195
the community- l i fe o f ants, which with su itable
co - operation for the wel fare o f the co lony combines
a mani fold independence o f action on the part o f the
single workers, in their mutual communications and
mutual services, in thei r wars , in thei r slave - making
expeditions and thei r confederations,in thei r nest
construction and in the mani fol d appl ication o f their
bui lding skill to various changes o f ci rcumstances ,finally, i n their breeding and nursing, embracingvarious methods of education le ft to the choice o f the
workers and mani fest ing, at the same time, the highest
degree of“sel f- sacrificing attachment
” to their help
less young ones : in all these points combined we must
rightly consider the l i fe o f ants as the cl imax ofdevelopment in instinctive life throughout the animal
kingdom. As regards the perfect ion o f the nervous
system and of the sense - organs , the higher mammals
are indeed far closer to man, than the ants ; but as
regards the quas i - intell igent actuat ion o f animal
inst inct under the influence o f sense - perceptions and
experiences for the various purposes o f community
l i fe , ants no doubt approach nearer to man than even
the anthropoid apes . Indeed, neither of them pos
sesses intel ligence proper, that i s to say, the power
o f acting with del iberation and sel f- consciousness , of
inventing new means for attaining various purposes
and thus mak ing progress in civi l ization . St il l , the
chasm between the psychic l i fe o f animal s and that
o f man,i s
,in many respects
, wider between ape and
man , than between ant and man .
O f course,the results of our study are very di f
ferent from,and indeed altogether contrary to, the
196 Conclusion.
apriorist i c postulate s o f modern evolutionism,
1 accord
ing to which man is nothing but the highest brute,
11 ) We cannot enter here on the general quest ion o f the develop
ment o f instin cts . Cf . f or th i s purpose my f ormer publ i cat ions : “Di e
Entstehung der Insti ncte nach Darwin ”
(“ S timmen aus Mar ia- Laach ,”
XXVI I I , “D ie En tw i ck lung der Inst incte in der Urwelt ( ibid.
XXVI I I , 481 ; XX IX , 248,“Zur En twick lun gsgesch ichte der
Ameisengesel lschaf ten”
(“Die zusammengesetzten Nester und gemi sch ten
Ko lon ien der Ame i sen ,I II sect ion , 2 Chap ) .
As to th e explanati on o f the genuine guest- relat ion shi p ( symph i ly)by the Darwin ian th eory o f evolut ion c f .
“Zur Entwicklung der In
st incte”
(“Verhandlgn . der Zoolog . Botan . W ien , 1897 , 3d
i ssue, pp. 1 68 Of late D r. K . E scheri ch has tried to so lve the
contrad ict ion , wh ich we proved to exist between th e f ac ts o f
symph i ly and the principles o f natural selec tion (“Zur Anatom ic und
Bio log ie von P aussus turci cus,Zugle i ch ein Bei trag zur Kenn tn i s der
Myrmekoph i l ie,”in
“Zoo log. Jahrbuech er
”Abth . fuer Systemat ik, X I I,
1898, 27 H e in si sts that symph i ly is not a separate inst in cttotal l y d i ff eren t f rom the breed ing in st in ct o f ants , but that the two are
in causal re lat ion to each other . We f o rmerly (see the fi rst German ed.
o f pre sent e ssay, p. 107 be low, and p . 108 above ) po inted out the same .
Yet Escherich i s wrong in bel ieving that natural select ion has beenunab le to prevent the development o f symph i l y in spite of the damagedone by i t to the an ts , because symph i l y i s so closely connected withthe breed ing instinct. Natu ral se lect ion must counterac t not on ly the
development o f an ent i re ly new in st inct wh ich proves in jurious to the
possessor, but al so the ex ten sion to in jurious objects o f an al readyex i sting use ful in st inct ; hence selecti on was just as l i tt le al lowed to l et
the breed ing inst inct o f ants extend i ts ac ti vity to L omechusa, A teme les,
Paussus and other nox ious obj ects , as i t was al lowed to let the f eed ingin st in ct o f an imals extend i ts act ivity to palatab le but po isonous herbsor to nutriti ous plants covered with parasites. (Cf .
“D ie psych i schen
Faeh igkeiten der Ame i sen ,
”1899, p . To th i s Escherich again
objected ( in “2 0 0 1. Centralbl 1899, No . 1 , p. that many sheep
are k i l led by f eeding on plants covered by cercari es”
( i . e the
capsulate f orm o f undeveloped trematodes) . But what would Mr.Escheri ch say to the f ol lowin g, i f with in th e who le spec ies o f sheep ,or with in a certa in race o f them, there should deve lop a special l i kingf or f eeding on plants covered by those parasites ? Would not such a
phenomenon evident ly cont radi ct the th eory o f natural selection ? But
th i s i s exactly the case with the rearing o f L omechusas by the
sanguine slave -makers. There fore Escherich ’ s objection s but confirmthe t ruth o f our assertion : The fact that ants by nursing thei r guestsrear thei r g reatest enemi es, is equal ly i ncompatible wi th the principlesof natural se lection and wi th the principles of mode rn an imal psychology.
198 Conclusion.
o f th i s theory to the results of biologi cal research
must in the first place, be branded as unscientific ;
for it m i stakes sensation for sp iritual l i fe,and
instinct for intel l igence, thus being diametrically at
variance with the principles o f critical psychology.
S econdly, i ts assertion , that the brute i s gi fted with
reason and consciousness o f duty as wel l as man,
although in a di ff erent degree,is an evident falsehood,
which i s given the l ie by the actual biological facts .
But this popular psychology i s not only unscientifi c
and untruthful ; i t i s far worse . To be candid , i t i s
demoralizing and fraught with moral danger to the
human social order. Hence we must do more than
merely shrug our shoulders in contemptuous pity,we
must take a decided stand against i t and combat it
w ith al l our might.
By denying the existence o f the essential di ff er
ence between animal and human psychic faculties , thi s
psychology not only raises the brute to the level o f
man,but degrades man to the level o f the brute .
Would to God that thi s were done in theory only ;but, alas, the pract ical consequence o f th is fal se theory
i s the demoralization and brutal ization of man . Th i s
i s the goal aimed at by those books and pamphlets ,
1 ) L et me once more protest, as I h ave al ready done in Chap . I o f
In st in ct and In te l l igence in the An imal K ingdom, that there i s no
wish on my part to iden t i fy the sc ient ific represen tat ives o f our modernzoo logi cal psychology with the champion s o f an imal intel l igen ce l ikeBrehm, Buechner , etc. Th i s would be an in justice to very manysober -minded natural i sts, who condemn just as we do the human izat ionof the an imal . Nor do we in any manner intend to pass judgmen t on
the personal mot ives o f Brehm , Buechner and other def enders o f
an imal intel l igen ce and an imal moral ity , but we on l y judge o f thei rwr itin gs . Th i s remark i s added here expressly to avo id misunder
standings.
Conclusion. 199
which describe the sexual impulse of the brute asessential ly th e same as human conj ugal love , and thecare o f the young among animals as essentially iden
tical with parental love in man . Such men as A l f .
Brehm and L. Buechner were not ashamed to come
forward as “apostles o f free love” and to decry as
ant iquated and rid iculous the moral bounds estab
l ished for man by reason and divine law . With them
the humanization o f the brute, consciously or uncbnsciously, aims at degrading man so far as to make
him cast o ff his reasonable nature and to follow with
out reserve the sensual inclinations, which he has in
common with the unreasonable brute . On thi s accountthey deny the di fference between sens itive and spirit
ual faculties,between the animal soul and the human
spirit . Hence we do not consider it too harsh a j udg
ment to say : Those, who humanize the animal, not
only tri fle wi th scienti fic psychology, but they also
drag into the mire the digni ty of man. Every wel l
meaning natural ist,there fore
,ought resolutely to
Oppose these unprincipled doirgs of so—cal led popular
psychology .
Now ~ a—days,there i s
,and rightly so , a widespread
agitation against the use o f alcohol and other drugs
inj urious to the nervous system , because th e bodily
and spir itual wel fare o f humanity i s endangered . But
to counteract the ravages o f spiritual venoms, which
under the gl ittering name o f modern science are spread
through al l classes o f society, l i ttle or nothing is done .
I f the moral principles of Brehm and Buechner should
later on become the common property o f humanity ,then the society of the future from the highest to the
200 Conclusion.
lowest , would resemble a herd of unreasonab l e animals
,whose “ spiritual l i fe” would consi st in the
unbridled gratification o f the meanest lusts and pas
sions . Hence our concluding appeal : D o away wi th
al l books, pamphl ets and periodicals, whose only pur
pose is to raise the brute to the level of man !
UNIVERSIT Y OF CAL IFORNIA L IBRARY
L osAngel es
T h i s boo k is DUE on th e last da te stamped be low.
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