The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1876-03-25
Interesting Experiments with Ants,

Interesting Experiments with Ants,
Sir John Lubbock recently read an inter
esling paper on ants before the Linnean So.
cietv. HEpapcr was divided into three heads
l. The power OF intercommunication among
ants rs % information about locality Of food,
&c 2 Their organs of sense. 3. Their af
fiction or regard for one another His ar
rangemcnt for testing their power OF COM
municating information as to route and To-
cality was modified In some minor respects
in different sets of observations, but the es
sential facts OF It were these: He had glass
box for the "npst" so that he could watch
what was being done inside. This was pac
ed on a pole about "a high as the level of his
ewes Ga the other side Of the pole was Il
board intended as promenade for the ants,
Near to this were three pieces of glass the
size Of microscopic slides, and these were
connected with the board by strips of paper,
which served as bridges. On one of the pieC-
es of glass was placed collection Of food,
and on the other two there was nothing. Two
ants were taken and marked with spots Of
color. as IN former observations, 80 that they
should be readily recognized. These were
both taken, one after the other, TO the store of
food, and were guided and taught their way
to the nest They soon learnt their way to
and from the nest to the food supply, coming
out of the door along the outside to the pole
around that, across the board, along the pa
per bridge, and so to the glass that supported
the food and so back again to the nest
Sir John LubbocK's object was to watch
whether the other ants IN the nest would find
out the food and, if so, to test as far rs posi-
BILE whether they found it from information
given, or whether they tracked the scent. He
devoted certain periods, rs he could spare the
time, to watching the movements Of the ants,
counting the number Of journeys made by
his marked ants, and also recording how
many untaught strangers, as he called them,
made their way from the board along the
right bridge TO the food At his first period
of observation he found that, while his mark
ed ants made forty journeys with TODD, nine
teen strangers also came on to the bridges.
or these, two only turned to the food, eight
turned to the wrong bridge, and the rest went
straight on.
Notifications IN the arrangements NJ the
bridges were made in different ways, while
the rest of the construction was left unaltered.
The observations made on different days and
during periods of different duration all show.
ed the same result. The marked ants who
had been taught their way pursued their work
steadily and Systematically, while ofthe stran-
gers only very small percentage reached the
food, the remainder taking one of the bridges
lat led them wrong. For example, at one
period of watching, out of one hundred and
fifty strangers who crossed the bridges only
twenty Lone went the right way to the food.
In one set of arrangements 1t was found that
while all had to travel thirty inches along
the same road, and the diverging bridges
were but another two inches long, the large
proportion went wrong Ia reaching the food
in the last two inches. The notion that ants
have the power of making communications
about routes and localities seems, therefore,
to be fallacions.
In referring to the organs OF sense, Sir John
had endeavored to ascertain whether the an.
tenn@ are organs of hearing or of smell. He
had tried them with all sorts of noises he
could contrIve aud found no results. Ii ants
have hearing they must he sensible to those
of the air which do not affect the
human ear. But he had also tried the antenng
with smells, and he found that if he put fine
camel's hair pencil with a scent on ii near
one Of them 1t shrank away, and then IL ap-
piled TO the other that also turned
away. The use of the antennG, however,
needs further investigation, and Sir John
hopes soon to make further observations. AS
regards their affection for one another he
does not doubt that an ant that dies laden
with food will be cared for by his compan.
lens; but he brought forward number OIL
Instances In which he had put ants that had
suffered immersion in water from periods of
from an hour to ten hours in the way of ants
that were passing by, and he found almost
invariably that they took no notice of their
unfortunate brethren. Indeed, the exceptions
in which any attention was paid were SO few
that Sir John said he was disposed to regard
these as ants with individual feelings which
were by no means those common to the com.
Times.