Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1874-11-20
OUR SIX LEGGED RTVAL&


vertebrates, but members of an entirely diff
ierent order. 1t is something more than
remarkable that they should stand to their
order-the articulata-precisely in the same
relation that man bears to the order with
which he is classed.
Though surpassed in every detail Ul
physical accomplishment by his subordin-
ates, man nevertheless excels them all in
intellectual power and capacity for self i'm
provement. Similarly our six legged riv-
ais, though the least of the articulates, are
first in grade of development, surprising
the next below them-the bees and the
wasps-as man surpasses the lower NAM
malta. This in itself is not surprising;
but ii does surprise one 10 see them excel
ling the higher vertebrates also, and press
ing hard upon mans prerogative.
Accustomed to find brain power associat-
ed with and measurably related to brain
bulk, ii is simply astounding to discover
few microscopic specks of nerve pulp-the
ants cerebral ganglia-harboring a degree
of intelligence such as the infinitely more
bulky brain of man alone gives evidence
Of
We have printed good deal of late in
regard to the manners and customs of
these interesting creatures, and think the
facts will warrant the position we have
taken.
The question is not one of difference be-
tween undeveloped reason and high or
der of instinct, but of difference between
instinct and instinct, reason and reason.
In the first, which we are too apt TO consider
an attribute 10 the lower forms of life, the
ant might possibly be accounted our su-
perior. But ants also reason, profit by ex-
perience, make a jndiciors use of new
Ie cans ior the accomplishing of new encs
or the overcoming of new obstacles, and in
many ways exhibit a degree Of quick
w,ttedness and intelligence which we may
look long for amoug many tribes of man.
The completeness and complexity OF the
social organic itinn f ant communities, the
magnitude and variety of the works " hich
they plan and execute, the perfection Of
their military and industrial disci pine,
the evident scope and flexibii.y of their
language, their sympathetic regard for
each other in times of distress and danger,
been celebrated by every observer pf in
sects from solomon to Belt; and the more
they are studied the more do their various
civilizations and the motives which ami.
mate the members surprise aud delight us.
Now we see them roaming about as in
dependent warriors or hunters-formc
Ishmaelites or Ind.sns-fierce, viudictive,
self reliant, and msrvelously fertile in
tricks and traps for the securing of their
prey. Again they appear in organized
armies, nomadic swarms without settled
habitation, like the Tartar hordes ofGengis
Khan, marching from conquest, sweeping
all before them. Others are pastoral in
their habits and more or less permanent in
their habtations. In temperate regions
they rear and maintain, on suitable plants,
herds of honey yielding aphides and
beetles, which they tend with assiduous
care, transporting them from pasture to
pasture, and defending them from their
enemies and the elements as zealously as
the shepherd does his sheep: in the trop-
les the same kind offices are performed for
domesticated scale insects and leafhoppers,
in return for the honey-like secretions they
emit. Some constitute themselves stand
ing armies for the defence of plants which
yield them subsistence directly or by af-
fording pasturage for their cattle. Others
are scourge to plant life, gathering leaves
by wholesale to make hot beds for the cul-
tivation of fungi in underground cham
bers.
The harvesting ant-which provideth her
meat in the summer and gathereth her
food in the harvest-has been proverbial
for thrifty wisdom, certainly since Solo
mon commended her WAYS to the slugaard:
how much longer, we have no means of
telling. Had the wise man enlarged upon
the way some of her kind have learned TO
secure plenty without labor by the ensav-
ing of others, his advice would doubtless
have been more highly appreciated by lazy
humanity, too many of whom have hit up
on the same expedient without the help Of
revelation.
But wiser than the common harvesting
ants are the agricultural ants Of Western
Texas-the only Simon Pure and original
Grangers-who have solved the transporta-
ton problem, by bringing not the grain
| but the grain fields 10 market. They have
learned-pOssiblyt through the gradual des-
! ication of that now almost desert region
that chance productions are but precari-
ous support in a climate like theirs, so they
surround their communities with fields of
rice grass, which they protect by killing all
| rival grOwths, and in due season harvest
their crops, doing all by well timed and
concerted labor. Could there be a happier
| illustration of that ideal state of organized
industry and mutual helpfulness, which
philosophers have dreamed of and enthu-
siasts labored Tor since Plato planned his
Republic? AS in Sir Thomas More's
has right to every thing and they do
know that, il care is taken 10 keep the
pubic stores full, no private ant can want
anything; for among them there is no un-
equal distribution, so that no ant has any
thing, yet they are all rich.
We have seen how all the common at.
tributes Of mankind are nIiucKed by
these six legged rivals OF ours, to deg ee
unapproached by any other class Of ani
mails. But man, we are tod, has a faculty
higher than thrln, higher than fellow feel
ing, higher even than reason. Ii is the
faculty of reverence, the basis of religion,
whether manifest in The celchism of the
Fantee or the faith Of the Christian. This
the theougians are wont to declare is shar-
ed by no other terrestrial creature. But
here comes the French observer NJ. Les
pes, with a story which dislurbs our sole
remaining ground 10. pride of peculiarity
raising the suspicion that ants too may
have religionI
In the nests of certain ants, and nowhere
else. there Is found a species of blind bee