HOW ANTS RECOGNISE ONE ANOTHER.

Kumara Times, Issue 844, 14 June 1879, Page 2

HOW ANTS RECOGNISE ONE ANOTHER.

Ants know one another when they meet, but do not make anything like a formal salute nor do they exchange the complimeuts of the season. , Sir John Lubbock has disproved the sign oi* password theory very ingeniously.! He took pubse from various nests and gave ta some of them attendants from their own nest, and to others attendants from a different nest of the same species, so that if they were taught any sign or password the aunts thus trained would know the sign of their nurse.s nest and not that of her own, except when the nurse had been taken from their owa nest. Then he restored some of them to their own nest, and put others in their nurse's nest. Of those brought up by friends and taken back to their own nest, none were attacked but all were welcomed. Of those brought up by strangers of the same species and taken back to their own nest, thirtyseven were welcomed and seven were apparently attacked. Of those brought up by strangers of the same species and put. into the nest of those strangers none were welcomed, but all were attacked. The inference is that ants of the same nest recognise one another, but hot by any Bign or password —probably by some smell or some sense - quite unknown to man. For remainder of news see last page.