Page - 278 - in The Origin of Species
Image of the Page - 278 -
Text of the Page - 278 -
278 ORIGIN OF SPECIES
surprise an independent community of F. flava under a stone
beneath a nest of the slave-making F. sanguinea; and when
I had accidentally disturbed both nests, the little ants at-
tacked their big neighbours with surprising courage. Now
I was curious to ascertain whether F. sanguinea could dis-.
tinguish 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 yel-
low ants had crawled away, they took heai/ and carried off
the pupae.
One evening I visited another community of F. sanguinea,
and found a number of these ants returning home and enter-
ing their nests, carrying the dead bodies of F. fusca (show-
ing that it was not a migration) and numerous pupae. I
traced a long file of ants burthened with booty, for about
forty yards back, to a very thick clump of heath, whence I
saw the last individual of F. sanguinea emerge, carrying a
pupa ; but I was not able to find the desolated nest in the
thick heath. The nest, however, must have been close at
hand, for two or three individuals of F. fusca were rushing
about in the greatest agitation, and one was perched motion-
less with its own pupa in its mouth on the top of a spray
of heath, an image of despair over its ravaged home.
Such are the facts, though they did not need confirmation
by me, in regard to the wonderful instinct of making slaves.
Let it be observed what a contrast the instinctive habits of
F. sanguinea present with those of the continental F. rufes-
cens. The latter does not build its own nest, does not deter-
mine its own migrations, does not collect food for itself or
its young, and cannot even feed itself: it is absolutely depen-
dent on its numerous slaves. Formica sanguinea, on the
other hand, possesses much fewer slaves, and in the early
part of the summer extremely few: the masters determine
when and where a new nest shall be formed, and when they
migrate, the masters carry the slaves. Both in Switzerland
back to the
book The Origin of Species"
The Origin of Species
- Title
- The Origin of Species
- Author
- Charles Darwin
- Publisher
- P. F. Collier & Son
- Location
- New York
- Date
- 1909
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 10.5 x 16.4 cm
- Pages
- 568
- Keywords
- Evolutionstheorie, Evolution, Theory of Evolution, Naturwissenschaft, Natural Sciences
- Categories
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Biologie
Table of contents
- EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 5
- AN HISTORICAL SKETCH of the Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species 9
- INTRODUCTION 21
- Variation under Domestication 25
- Variation under Nature 58
- Struggle for Existence 76
- Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest 93
- Laws of Variation 145
- Difficulties of the Theory 178
- Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection 219
- Instinct 262
- Hybridism 298
- On the Imperfection of the Geological Record 333
- On the Geological Succession of Organic Beinss 364
- Geographical Distribution 395
- Geographical Distribution - continued 427
- Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs 450
- Recapitulation and Conclusion 499
- GLOSSARY 531
- INDEX 541