So utterly helpless are the masters, that when Huber shut up thirty of them without a slave, but with plenty of the food which they like best, and with their larvae and pupae to stimulate them to work, they did nothing; they could not even feed themselves, and many perished of hunger.

Huber then introduced a single slave (F.fusca), and she instantly set to work, fed and saved the survivors; made some cells and tended the larvae, and put all to rights.

What can be more extraordinary than these well-ascertained facts?
If we had not known of any other slave-making ant, it would have been hopeless to speculate how so wonderful an instinct could have been perfected.
Another species, Formica sanguinea, was likewise first discovered by P.
Huber to be a slave-making ant.

This species is found in the southern parts of England, and its habits have been attended to by Mr.F.Smith, of the British Museum, to whom I am much indebted for information on this and other subjects.

Although fully trusting to the statements of Huber and Mr.Smith, I tried to approach the subject in a sceptical frame of mind, as any one may well be excused for doubting the existence of so extraordinary an instinct as that of making slaves.