their slaves that even if provided with food they will die of
hunger, unless there is a slave to put it into their mouths, I
found, however, that they would thrive very well if supplied with a
slave for an hour or so once a week to clean and feed them.

But in many cases the community does not consist of ants only. They
have domestic animals, and indeed it is not going too far to say
that they have domesticated more animals than we have. Of these the
most important are Aphides on trees and bushes; others collect
root-feeding Aphides into their nests. They serve as cows to the
ants, which feed on the honey-dew secreted by the Aphides. Not
only, moreover, do the ants protect the Aphides themselves, but
collect their eggs in autumn, and tend them carefully through the
winter, ready for the next spring. Many other insects are also
domesticated by ants, and some of them, from living constantly
underground, have completely lost their eyes and become quite
blind.

When we see a community of ants working together in perfect
harmony, it is impossible not to ask ourselves how far they are
mere exquisite automatons; how far they are conscious beings. When
we watch an ant-hill tenanted by thousands of industrious
inhabitants, excavating chambers, forming tunnels, making
roads, guarding their home, gathering food, feeding the young,
tending their domestic animals--each one fulfilling its duties
industriously, and without confusion--it is difficult; altogether
to deny to them the gift of reason; and all our recent observations
tend to confirm the opinion that their mental powers differ from
those of men, not so much in kind as in degree.