noon
They co-operate more , and in complicated things . Sir , there are ants that make greater marches , for their size , than Napoleon 's invasion of Russia . Even the less nomad tribes will march through fields of grass , where each blade is a high gum-tree to them , and never lose the track . I saw an army of red ants , with generals , captains , and ensigns , start at daybreak , march across a road , through a hedge , and then through high grass till noon , and surprise a fortification of black ants , and take it after a sanguinary resistance . All that must have been planned beforehand , you know , and carried out to the letter . Once I found a colony busy on some hard ground , preparing an abode . I happened to have been microscoping a wasp , so I threw him down among the ants .