ash-colored

— When the plunderers returned with their prey the ash-colored ants received them as friends, caressed them with their antennæ, offered them food, and taking up their burdens conveyed them to the inner part of the nest. It appeared on farther examination that these ash-colored ants were the slaves of the warlike freebooters, for whom they performed all domestic services, while their masters followed the trade of plunder. Huber somewat incorrectly terms the rufescent ants, Amazons, and the ash-colored species, Negroes.