Comparative studies in the psychology of ants and of higher animals

Front matter

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COMPARATIVE STUDIES

IN THE

Preface To The First Edition

OME time ago we published an essay entitled

“Instinct and Intelligence in the Animal Kingdom,’ examining in detail the concepts of instinct and itelligence, with their application to animals. The discussion showed that intelligence is the spiritual power of abstraction, and not the mere faculty of forming complex sense-representations; for the laws of association in sense-perceptions belong to the sphere of instinctive sensitive life and not to spiritual intelligence. Now, what modern animal psychology terms “intelligence of animals,’ is nothing but inborn instinct, raised to a higher level of perfection by the individual’s sensuous experience. This, in its turn, is based on the very same laws of association of sense-representations. Hence, there is no reason for ascribing to animals intelligence in the strict sense. Indeed, our reasoning led us to take a further step, and we proved that animals have no intelligence at all. If they were gifted with a spiritual power of abstraction, it would necessarily be manifested in their outward actions, especially by the formation of an arbitrary phonetic or graphic language. Animals, however, have no language; hence, they have no intelligence.

Besides, we have shown in the same essay that the manifestations of the psychic life, both of higher and of lower animals, are to be judged according to one and the same critical standard. The anatomical iii

Preface to the First Edition.

difference, that exists between the sense organs and the nervous system of Arthropods on the one hand and of Vertebrates on the other, is not a sufficient a priori reason for ascribing intelligence to the latter only and denying it to the former. The proof of these assertions forms the groundwork of the present essay. We shall compare more at length the psychic life of the most “intelligent” Arthropods, namely the ants, with that of the higher Vertebrates and of man. From this discussion we shall learn, whether the “missing link,” with which modern evolutionists hope to bridge over the chasm between the instinct of animals and the spiritual soul of man, is to be looked for in ants or in the higher Vertebrates, or whether, in fact, it exists at all. Biologists will be pleased to find that the present essay contains many new observations on the habits of ants and their guests.

Preface To The Second Edition

HE numerous observations of modern scientists,

illustrating the relations between the psychic life of ants and of higher animals, have been extensively utilized in preparing this second edition. We have paid due regard to the observations and experiments, published since 1897, on the differentiation of castes in bee-hives. Besides, we have turned to account the results of a statistical chart now completed, extending over five years and comprising all the colonies of Formica sanguinea in the neighborhood of Exaten, Holland. This ant is the most interesting of all European species. Thus we are able to publish many new facts of interest in scientific biology regarding the slave-making habits of this ant, its methods of nest construction, its relationship to its guest Lomechusa, and the influence of the latter in the differentiation of castes in ant communities. Finally, two additional illustrations of Lomechusa strumosa and of its larva have been added in the text.

TRANSLATORS PREFACE.

TASMANN’S “Instinct and Intelligence in the Animal Kingdom,” which appeared recently in an English dress (Herder, St. Louis, Mo.), was so favorably received, that it has been thought advisable to follow it up with this translation of another essay by the same author. These two books supplement each other, as may be gathered from the frequent cross references they contain, and, more especially, from the close relationship of the subjects of which they treat.

The best recommendation of Wasmann’s biological and psychological essays is given in the following lines of W. M. Wheeler, Prof. of the University of Texas:1 “Wasmann in his numerous writings has undoubtedly done much, at least in Germany, towards the exposure of this pseudo-psychology (of Brehm, Buechner and others) and a more rational conception of ant behavior. His long familiarity with these animals and their guests has given him a singularly lucid insight into their activities. My own more limited observations on our North American species lead me to agree with him so far as the facts are concerned, and many of the inferences which he has drawn from them.” As to his additional remark: “I am constrained to say, however, that I cannot adopt

1) “The Compound and Mixed Nests of American Ants,” in “American Naturalist,” Vol. XXV, 1901, p. 808.

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Translators Preface.

either his psychological definitions or his psychogenetic reservations,’—we call the critic’s attention to the end of the fourth chapter of “Instinct and Intelligence in the Animal Kingdom,’ where Prof. Wheeler’s objections have been answered.

In order to make the English translation more valuable for North America, the author has kindly added a series of notes and observations on the ant fauna of the United States. He has added, moreover, the figures representing the North American form of Formica sanguinea and that of its guest Xenodusa cava. The present work, therefore, is more than a translation; it may be called a new edition, revised and enlarged by Father Wasmann.

Contents

PAGE.

Some ancient and modern views of the psychic life of ants-and of higher animlsweew sc seek cee ce eee 1

CHARTER COMMUNITY LIFE IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

Chapter II. Warfare And Slavery In The Animal Kingdom

1. Wars among higher animals........ Seinic's Cicctern ieee

Fables and stories of wars between troops of apes. The latter use no weapons or tools, viii

Contents.

PAGE.

2. The war-like expeditions of the Amazon ant and the

Their tactics, the “humanity” of the victors. The military skill of the Amazon ants; their inability to feed themselves. The military tactics of the sanguine slavemaker (Formica sanguinea) discussed on psychological grounds.

3. The pretended “automatism” in the psychic life of ants The individuals of one and the same colony act differently in combat. Acquired individual habits. Persecution of tolerated or even of true guests. Ants tamable. Psychic influence of the numbers of a colony on their courage in combat. Marked “heroism” of individuals. Martial sports? 4. The slave-making instincts of Formica sanguinea..... ; “Tradition and instruction” in insect communities. Experiments made with “self-taught” ants and bees. Seemingly intelligent plasticity of the instinct of slavery in Formica sanguinea, both with regard to the number and to the species of its slaves. On the nature of slavery in ants. The correct explanation is neither anthropomorphism nor mechanic automatism, but something between the two.

Bother wars ead Alliances Of “ANTS. aca neds anc tele eolee Fights between neighboring colonies. Alliances between hostile colonies, and their psychological explanation. Summary.

Chapter III. Architecture In The Animal Kingdom

1. A general survey of the architecture of animals........

DUE RUCStS Oke ANTS ere mstuer sialyl erie es 2 2% cpiote Eras Panae aiare Various and arbitrary forms of their nests. Nests of different ant species. Psychological explanation of this difference.

Variety and plasticity in their forms. Variable number of the nests of a colony. “Periodic changes of nests; different places of residence in different seasons. These phenomena psychologically explained. Power of adapting the construction of their nests to the surroundings, in order to secure them against Beary Bae:

No rigid system of co-operation; seemingly intelligent ifs: determination. Suitable consideration of the different conditions of temperature and moisture. Architecture of birds compared with that of ants; with that of mammals, in particular of beavers, ix

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Contents.

PAGE. 3. Other purposes, for which ants employ their architectural skill itdishsw Stas ot Die 3 Sen eI oC en ere 123

Stations, roads, galleries, stables for aphides, granaries, ramparts, etc. The grave-yards of ants in fiction and in reality.

6. Is the building activity of ants guided by intelligence?.. 128

Ants using their larvae as spinning-wheels. The “bridge building’ of ants according to W. Marshall and Buechner. Experiments of Lubbock and Bethe. My own experiments.

~ vA Results summed up.

Chapter IV. Breeding And Nursing In The Animal Kingdom

1. A general view of the breeding instincts of animals ... 143

Breeding and family life in animals with reference tc the preservation of species. This relationship psychologically explained. Breeding in social insects. The breeding instinct of ants dependent on the laws of organic development.

2. Care otsthe young amone ants: ov... oe acne ee eee wae dss

Psychic characteristics of their breeding instinct and of its different manifestations. The differentiation of castes in bees and ants influenced by education. Intermediate forms between females and workers in ants, and their probable explanation. Pseudogynes and their relation to Lomechusa. Attachment of ants to their brood. Fond “mothers” and “aunts.”

3. Adoption instincts in the animal kingdom............. 173

Their frequent occurrence. Psychological explanation. Ants nursing Lomechusa-larvae. Different treatment of these larvae, both in normal sanguinea colonies and in such as contain pseudogynes. W. Marshall and the nursing of eggs of aphides by ants; ‘“‘intelligent’? foresight of the future; comparison with the nursing of Lomechusa-larvae. Adoption instincts in birds and mammals. Results summed up; conclusions,

The automatism and the plasticity of instinct both in ants and higher animals reviewed. Man the only being in the visible creation gifted with reason. NHumanization of animals is unscientific, and injurious to the moral order of human society,

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Introduction

VEN in ancient times, observers of animal life

noticed that bodily size and psychic perfection are not always in direct proportion, but that the reverse is not unfrequently the case. Thus Aristotle? declared that keenness of perception (rqv Tis Siavoias dxpiBeaov) was often more manifest in smaller than in larger animals. Nor did it escape the great Stagirite, who was not only a logical thinker, but also a skilful observer, that many animals of low rank in the zoological scale were endowed, in some way, with a higher psychic life than the highest mammals, so much so, that its manifestations could be compared with human institutions only. He mentions, especially, ants and bees among those “bloodless” animals which possess a more intellectual soul than many animals of the other kind.2 The same thought was expressed by St. Augustine, one of the loftiest Christian minds, in the following terms: “We admire the works of the tiny ants and bees more than the bulky forms of whales.’* And a distinguished modern naturalist, Emil Dubois-Reymond, has acknowledged

2) “De partib. animal.,” 1, 2, c. 4 (Becker I, 650). Aristotle’s division of animals into those with red blood and those with colorless blood in reality coincides with that of Vertebrates and Non-Vertebrates. He uses the term “Bloodless Animals’ for those which have no red blood.

in the name of his colleagues:1 “With reverential awe does he (the naturalist) gaze at the microscopic speck of nervous substance, which harbors the soul of the ant with its industry, its instincts of architecture, order, fidelity and courage.”

Surely, it was not without great reason that scientific observers of recent times applied themselves to the most careful and detailed examination of the life of ants, especially since the publication of Pierre Huber’s classical “Recherches sur les Moeurs des Fourmis indigénes’ (1810). Very many interesting facts of great value for psychological research have thus been furnished. However, dabblers in popular science, who viewed things from the standpoint of “vulgar psychology,” as Wundt termed it, misinterpreted these facts in a very unscientific manner; for they tried to draw conclusions from them which led to the humanization of animals, and denied the existence of any essential difference between the psychic faculties of man and brute. It is not so very long since Ludwig Buechner endeavored to promote these ideas in his ‘“Geistesleben der Tiere” (Berlin, 1876). As is generally the case with such shallow elaborations, Buechner has found not a few imitators and plagiarists. Therefore, it may not be out of place to examine these deductions from the standpoint of critical psychology.

Sir John Lubbock, who devoted himself to the study of ant life with the accuracy of a professional scientist, and who carefully refrained from the

1) “Ueber die Grenzen des Naturerkennens.” Lectures by E, DBubois-Reymond, 1st issue (Leipzig, 1886), p. 127.

humanizing tendencies of modern times, states in the introduction to his book, “Ants, Wasps and Bees,” that ants rank next to man in the scale of intelligence, and that in psychic faculties they approach nearer to man than the Anthropoid apes even. George Romanes in the sixth edition of his book, “Animal Intelligence” (1895), devotes more than one hundred pages to ants, and thus indicates the great importance he ascribes to their psychic qualities.

Prior to Lubbock’s work on ants, another prominent investigator of ant life, Dr. Augustus Forel, in his “Fourmis de la Suisse” (1874) had expressed the opinion that the principal factor in the psychic activity of ants was not individual intelligence, but social instincts (p. 444). Although he pretends to find even among ants remarkable proofs of intellect, he maintains that it cannot compare with the individual intelligence of the higher Vertebrates (as apes, seals, elephants, etc.). Most of my critics, likewise, especially Forel and Smalian, in discussing my book “The Compound Nests and Mixed Colonies of Ants,” conceded that ants were guided in their life and doings almost exclusively by their social instincts. With the higher Vertebrates, however, intelligence is said to pteponderate gradually over instinct. This is postulated by Darwin’s theory of evolution, which otherwise would be unable to explain the mental evolution of man from the animal kingdom. The only possible explanation according to this theory is to assume that, to the individual mammal-intelligence of the hypothetical ancestors of man, there was added, through the development of community life, a higher degree of perfection in their social instincts, and that thereby the higher animal was gradually transformed into man.

The tenability of this assumption will be discussed in the following chapters. It is understood, that in our comparative investigation, we shall be guided, not by the postulates of evolutionist theories, but by the principles of critical psychology, set forth at length in our former essay, “Instinct and Intelligence in the-Animal Kingdom” (Herder, St. Louis, Mo., 1903).

Lately there has been invented a theory on the psychic life of ants, which is diametrically opposed to the popular attempts at humanization. Alb. Bethet has tried to set down ants and bees as mere “reflex machines,” devoid even of the simplest sensitive perception and cognition, whilst he considers the intelligence of higher animals to be beyond all doubt. Thus he hoped to succeed in destroying the parallelism established by us between the psychic faculties of ants and those of higher animals, from which we had drawn the conclusion: we do not need ant intelligence, therefore neither animal intelligence. Bethe’s work is of undoubted value on account of its attack on the still wide-spread popular views regarding ants as intelligent, human beings in miniature.? His theory has

1) “Duerfen wir den Ameisen und Bienen psychische Qualitaeten zuschreiben?” Bonn, 1898. (“Archiv fuer die gesamte Physiologie,” LXX, 15-100.)

?) In this regard the “Betrachtungen ueber die staatlich lebenden Immen,” published against Bethe’s essay by Charles Sajé in “Prometheus” (10 Jahrg., 1899, Nr. 486 and 487), go far beyond what is admissible. Similarly the essay by Kienitz-Gerloff, ‘‘Besitzen die Ameisen Intelligenz?” in ‘“‘Naturwissenschaftl. Wochenschrift” (XIV, 1899, n. 20 and 21).

already, on another occasion,’ been subjected by us to a thorough discussion. Besides, in a longer essay, especially intended for professional zoologists,? we have since then perfected our former argument, proving that ants are no more mere reflex machines than dog's and apes are intelligent beings. The theoretical side of Bethe’s psychological views was also noticed in the second edition of our essay “Instinct and Intelligence in the Animal Kingdom” (chapters 7 and 8).? In this work, therefore, we shall return to them but occasionally, to show the fatal results of attempting to vindicate the intelligence of higher animals by completely denying psychic activities in ants.

1) “A new reflex theory of ant life’ (Biolog. Centralbl., XVIII, 1898, n. 15, p. 577-588).

2) “Die psychischen Faehigkeiten der Ameisen.” Stuttgart, 1899.

(“Zoologica,” Heft 26) p. 134 and foll. with 3 plates. 3) p. 144 and following.