United States or Mexico ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
When the instinct was once acquired, if carried out to a much less extent even than in our British F. sanguinea, which, as we have seen, is less aided by its slaves than the same species in Switzerland, I can see no difficulty in natural selection increasing and modifying the instinct always supposing each modification to be of use to the species until an ant was formed as abjectly dependent on its slaves as is the Formica rufescens.
Sibyl Dacy examined it closely, touched its leaves, smelt it, looked at it with a botanist's eye, and at last remarked to Rose, "Yes, it grows well in this new soil; methinks it looks like a new human life." "What is the strange flower?" asked Rose. "The Sanguinea sanguinissima" said Sibyl.
"A word or two this morning, as I was going to my school," said Rose. "She took me by the hand, and smiled, and said we would be friends, and that I should show her where the flowers grew; for that she had a little spot of her own that she wanted to plant with them. And she asked me if the Sanguinea sanguinissima grew hereabout.
So that the masters in this country receive much less service from their slaves than they do in Switzerland. By what steps the instinct of F. sanguinea originated I will not pretend to conjecture.
If we had not known of any other slave-making ant, it would have been hopeless to speculate how so wonderful an instinct could have been perfected. Another species, Formica sanguinea, was likewise first discovered by P. Huber to be a slave-making ant. This species is found in the southern parts of England, and its habits have been attended to by Mr.
Now I was curious to ascertain whether F. sanguinea could distinguish the pupae of F. fusca, which they habitually make into slaves, from those of the little and furious F. flava, which they rarely capture, and it was evident that they did at once distinguish them; for we have seen that they eagerly and instantly seized the pupae of F. fusca, whereas they were much terrified when they came across the pupae, or even the earth from the nest, of F. flava, and quickly ran away; but in about a quarter of an hour, shortly after all the little yellow ants had crawled away, they took heart and carried off the pupae.
Let it be observed what a contrast the instinctive habits of F. sanguinea present with those of the continental F. rufescens. The latter does not build its own nest, does not determine its own migrations, does not collect food for itself or its young, and cannot even feed itself: it is absolutely dependent on its numerous slaves.
Stem the size and shape of an ostrich's egg, thickly studded with small, conical tubercles, woolly at the base, the apices bearing each four spreading spines, ¾ in. long, rather stout, straight, brown when young, becoming almost white with age. Flowers numerous, small, arranged as in M. sanguinea, to which and M. cirrhifera this species is closely related.
Browne and I turned homewards from our first going to the N.W. The Cacatua sanguinea, Gould, succeeded the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo to the westward of the Barrier Range, and was in flocks of thousands on Evelyn's Plains, near the Depot, but I am not certain as to the point to which it migrated.
Hence, I will give the observations which I made in some little detail. I opened fourteen nests of F. sanguinea, and found a few slaves in all. The slaves are black and not above half the size of their red masters, so that the contrast in their appearance is great.
Word Of The Day