A hundred years ago
Sir John Lubbock has made out that ants do not recognise ants of the same nest by any sign or pass-word, though he thinks it impossible that in the case of nests containing 100,000 each, all the ants know each other individually. The way in which he disproved the sign or password theory was exceedingly ingenious. He took pupae from various nests, and gave to some of them attendants from their own nest, to others, attendants from a different nest of the same species, so that if they were taught any sign or pass-word, the ants thus brought up would know the sign of their nurse's nest, and not that of their own, except when the nurse had been taken from their own nest. Then he returned some of them to their own nest, some to their nurse's nest. The result was as follows: ants of the same nest do recognise each other, but not by any sign or password, — probably by some smell, or other sense quite unknown to us. The whole series of these experiments of Sir John Lubbock's are most interesting, and we hope he will some day embody his studies in an essay on these highly intellectual insects.
Spectator 8 February, 1879
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