The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-08-24 00:00:00

ANTS AND THEIR HABITS.

At the Britieh Association great interest was centere,d in
%Paper by Sir John Lfibbock on the habits of ants. A great
desire to hear it was expressed, and the reading of it was
frequently interrupted by the efforts of a crowd of dis-
appointed people to get into the room, which was complained
OX as too small.
Sir John Lubbock stated, when reading his paper,
that he had been for some years watching the habits
of ants, and had kept under observation about 80
Species. Though living in captivity they were in good
health, andle had in one nest a queen which had
lived with him since 1874. He could confirm the
statements which had been made with respect to the
architectural skill of ants their attention to
their young, their remarkable organisation, their
possession of domestic animals, and even the
institution of slavery. He had also watched
several other insects which lived in associa-
tion with them, of which M. Andre calculated that
there were 583 species. In some cases the association
Was accidental, in others it was because the nests
afforded shelter to other insects, and there were also
some uncomfortable companions which attached them-
selves to ants and could not be got rid of. The com-
mon house ant was to be found sometimes in associa-
tion with other ants, but the cases were exceptional,
and he had never seen any instance. A nearly allied
!Pecies, however, the sanguinea, was sometimes found
In association with others, generally the fusee. In
such cases the nest belonged to the sanguinea. The
queen and the young were of that species, and the
hums were slaves, though free to come and go, as
there was no fugitive slave law, and they seemed to be
!mite reconciled to their position. They assisted
In the household duties and in foraging for pro-
visions. They kept the aphides in corn, and
derived a considerable share of their sustenance
from them. In the winter, when they were of no
Use, they were still tended with great care, until the
spring, when they became again useful, an instance of
prudence and forethought unexampled in the animal
kingdom. There was one species which took no part
Whatever in the duties of the household, and would
even starve in the midst of plenty if the food were
hot put into their mouths. He had confirmed Huber 's
remarkable experiments on this point, and had kept
some alive and in health for months by allowing them.
. .

a slave for an hour a day to feed and Clean than. To
teat their intelligence he suspended some honey about
half an inch over the nest, which could only be reached
by a paper bridge 10ft. long. He then made a
small heap of earth by which they could reach it.
They soon swarmed over the earth and began to eat, but
When he removed some of the earth it never occurred
to them to heap it up again, though they tried to
stretch up to the honey, and they went round by the
bridge. He made a similar experiment by placing
honey which could only be reached by crossing a
chasm over which he had laid as a bridge a bit of straw.
He slightly moved the bridge, and they tried in vain
to stretch over, but never thought of putting the straw
back, which they could easily have done. Every one
knew that if an ant or bee found a store of honey
others would soon collect about it; but very little
Intelligence was implied if the ants and bees only
accompanied their friends. The case was different if
they could describe the locality and send their friends
to it. They did not, however' appear to be able to
communicate as much as that to their friends. If a
fuscas neat were disturbed and one of them found a
Place of concealment, she was anxious that her friends
should come to it. She went up to one of them and took
it by the mandible. The second ant rolled herself up
into a ball, and was carried over her shoulder to the
Place. The second ant then went to a third, and the
Process was repeated. He put an ant which had been
Without food for some days to honey, and saw that after
feeding she was on her way to the nest when she met
some friends, whom she fed, and then returned alone
, to the honey. On her way back again she met some
other friends, whom she fed, and then five of them went
back with her to the honey. In due course they, no
doubt, brought others. He believed they were able to
distinguish between a large and a small quantity. To
test this, he put some of the Laesius Niger species into
a small store, and others into a large one, and having
Watched for 50 hours found that the ants with the small
quantity brought 82 friends to share it, and the ants
With the large store brought 257. To try whether they
could send their friends to a 'store, he put an ant (Niger)
to some honey, which he placed near her nest. She fed,
returned to the nest, and came out with ten friends.
He took her up, however, and put her into the honey,
and her friends then wandered about, and then re-
turned to the nest. It was hard to say whether there
were differences of character in ants of the same
species, as they behaved differently under different
conditions; but there were great differences of cha-
racter and habits between those of different species,
Putting aside the slave-making species, which he
thought would find it impossible to compete with
the self.dependent and freer species. These coin-
'flunkies even showed curious analogies to the
earlier stages of human progress. There were the
hunting, the pastoral. and even the agricultural ants.
The first lived chiefly by the chase, and hunted
alone. Their battles were single combats like those de-
oribed by the ancient poets. The second were a higher
' type of social life. They demonstrated certain species
of aphides like flocks and herds. They were immense
and acted in concert. He thought they would pro-
bably exterminate the first type just as the white
Man exterminated the savages. 'Of the agricultural
class—the harvest ants—he would not speak, as there
were none in this country. When he first began to
keep ants he isolated the nests by water, but it was
necessary to change that often, and observing that
the hairs on the stems of flowers prevented the ants
from climbing them, he had since used ferns. One of
the most surprising points connected with ants was
utiers Wa,t, one neyt they ...par appeared to
qliarrei, all others, .epu of the same Species, beiug
treated as strangers and enemies. There was no
Mistaking the treatment. If an ant (fusca) wanted
to carry away a friend to a place of security she
took her by the mandible awl her friend rolled herself
into a ball, but an enemy is seized by the leg or an an-
tenna. He confirmed the experiments of Huber as
to their being able to recognise their friends, even
after a long absence, or rather their acquaintances,
for although he saw that they attacked and killed
their enemies he could not find any trace of warm
affection for their friends, He tested this by taking
eome out of a nest and suspending them iu a
bottle covered with muslin. Those in the nest
took no notice of them, but when strangers were
put in they were indignant and never stopped
tmtil they cut through the muslin and attacked
them, He marked some ants in a nest with paint
and found that their friends removed it, but a stranger
going into the nest was restless and got out as quickly
as possible. It would be interesting to know how they
recognized their friends, It might be by smell or some
Signor by actual recognition. In order to try whether
they could recognize them when insensible he first used
chloroform, but that practically killed them, and he
then made them intoxicated. He did so by putting
them into whisky, not whisky into them, for they
Were too sensible to take it even on week days. He
tried an experiment with 25 friends and 30 strangers.
The sober ants coming out of the nests and finding the
Intoxicated ants lying helpless on their backs in ludicrous
attitudes, proceeded to take them up and carry them off.
Of the 25 they brought 20 into the nest, where, pro•
bably, they soon slept off the effects. The other five
they dropped into the moat of water which then sur-
rounded the neat. Why they did so he could not tell.
Perhaps they fell into the hands of stern teetotalers.
As to the 30 strangers; 28 were thrown into the moat
and the other two were taken no notice of. He took
some pupae out of a nest, and on putting them back
after some months, found that they were received as
friends, while some which were put into a different
xest were attacked. It was generally stated that all
the eggs in a nest of ants or bees were laid
by queens. That was not strictly so, for some
Were laid by workers, though the cases were
axOstptional. He had some nests in which there
were no queens, and yet there were eggs in them, but
the eggs laid by workers always produced males. He
had made some experiments to test the senses of ants.
Re found that they were capable of distinguishing
between different colours, and avoided violet. Their
sense of smell was also delicate but he had seen no
Proof that they were capable of hearing, and he had
proved by an experiment which he described, that
they were not capable of communicating with each
other by sound. There were 30 species of ants in
these countries, and 700 in other eountries, and there
were many interesting problems to be solved in rela-
tion to them.
Sir Walter Elliott asked how ants communicated
with each other, and mentioned that on one occasion
in India when making a preparation of a spider an
ant approached and attempted to carry off the spec-
=en. He drove it away, and then five others came,
MO having occasion to leave the room he found on
his return that the specimen was gone.
The President observed that perhaps in tropical
regions the ants were more civilized and possessed a
power of coxnmunicating with each other which was
hot enjoyed by ants elsewhere.