Russel Wallace : Alfred Russell Wallace (sic)
Coming however to the original observations of the writer, we find him disputing the statement of Sir John Lubbock, that ants dislike light. He says:--
"That they prefer working underground is certainly true, and that they construct their chambers and passages out of sight is clearly established, and that they will not work against the sides of the bell-glass if exposed to the light is undoubted fact. But it is not, I believe, because they dislike the light, but because, for sanitary, educational, and protective reasons, it is necessary that their many chambers should be arranged at certain depths below the surface, and therefore at varying distances from the light of day."
He then goes on to record a series of experiments showing that ants are attracted to the sunlight and bring their young beneath its influence for the sake of the [[p. 294]] warmth which accompanies it, and that in the same way they are attracted by the light of a candle placed close to the sides of the formicarium; the glass being warmed and becoming a source of radiant heat. The elaborate experiments of Sir John Lubbock, showing that ants preferred the red end of the spectrum and avoided the violet end, are all explained by their preference for the greater warmth accompanying the red rays, though he also thinks they dislike the effect of the chemical rays. His general conclusion is, that there is no evidence that they distinguish colour or prefer one colour to another, but that they always prefer warmth, and dislike the action of the chemical rays of light, while to light itself they have no objection whatever.
Mr. White reproduces from the Proceedings of the Linnean Society for 1861 a remarkable account of some Australian ants burying their dead in a methodical manner strongly resembling our funerals, and supports it by some curious observations of his own. In one of his newly procured nests there were many dead ants, which were carried up from below and placed against the glass. Three small card trays containing honey for the ants were placed in the formicarium, but instead of eating the honey the trays were used as cemeteries, and in two days 140 dead ants were placed in one tray and 180 in each of the others. In another case he observed the ants burying the dead in subterranean cemeteries, the bodies being covered with earth and the passage leading to the vault being stopped up.
A good account is given of the various creatures found in ants' nests, such as the crustacean Platyarthrus Hoffmanseggii, the various species of beetles, some of which are never found elsewhere, and seem to depend on the ants for their subsistence, and the aphides which the ants actually breed for their own use just as we do cattle. Some ants have small colonies of other ants domiciled with them, apparently as guests or lodgers, while others capture the pupæ of distinct species and bring them up to work for them like veritable slaves. This extraordinary habit of slave-making is fully described in two very interesting chapters, and Mr. White is one of the few Englishmen who have been so fortunate as to witness the slave-hunters at their work.
We cannot better illustrate our author's style and his mode of viewing the subject of ant-economy than by quoting the passage in which he sums up the result of his observations and inquiries:--
Though somewhat anthropomorphic and highly coloured, this passage brings before us in a striking manner the many marvellous characteristics of the habits and instincts of ants, and also serves to show the thorough and enthusiastic study which the writer has bestowed upon them.
The book is well illustrated with numerous woodcuts from original drawings; and in an appendix is given a complete list of British ants with careful descriptions of all the species, forty-one in number. It will therefore be of great assistance to any entomologist wishing to commence the study of our native ants; while as an interesting volume for the general reader, or as a gift-book for children with a taste for natural history, it may be safely recommended as among the very best of its kind.