They Follow A Few Leaders Who Never Carry
Any Thing, And They Seem To Be Guided By A Scent Left
On the path
by the leaders; for, happening once to throw the water from my basin
behind a bush where
I was dressing, it lighted on the path
by which a regiment had passed before I began my toilette,
and when they returned they were totally at a loss to find the way home,
though they continued searching for it nearly half an hour.
It was found only by one making a long circuit round the wetted spot.
The scent may have indicated also the propriety of their going
in one direction only. If a handful of earth is thrown on the path
at the middle of the regiment, either on its way home or abroad,
those behind it are completely at a loss as to their farther progress.
Whatever it may be that guides them, they seem only to know
that they are not to return, for they come up to the handful of earth,
but will not cross it, though not a quarter of an inch high.
They wheel round and regain their path again, but never think of retreating
to the nest, or to the place where they have been stealing.
After a quarter of an hour's confusion and hissing, one may make
a circuit of a foot round the earth, and soon all follow in that
roundabout way. When on their way to attack the abode of the white ants,
the latter may be observed rushing about in a state of great perturbation.
The black leaders, distinguished from the rest by their greater size,
especially in the region of the sting, then seize the white ants one by one,
and inflict a sting, which seems to inject a portion of fluid
similar in effect to chloroform, as it renders them insensible, but not dead,
and only able to move one or two front legs.
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