San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1879-01-04
ANTS AND BEES.
49,. archaeological Notes About Them.

s.,.s archaeological Notes About Them.
Not content with having destroyed
.,me timed.honored traditional beliefs
On the subject of bees, that sturdy
;oonoclast, Sir John Lubbock, has now
attacked the reputation of an insect
vbich has almost as frequently been
held MP to the respect and imitation Of
rankind-the ant-and from all that
would appear, pretty plausible case
has been made out.
The well known and somewhat i'm.
rressive exhortation, go to the ant,
thou sluggard," will in future have to
he altered into go to the right kind of
.ntn-at least, If the admonition is to
have any moral value; for, according to
sir John, it seems that the different
species of ants--and there are about
seven hundred Of these species altogeth-
er-have strongly contrasted moral
characteristics; that is, some are dis
tinguished by bravery, some by coward
ice, some are industrious, some are
strikingly idle.
This last named fact is the most
damaging of all to the reputation of the
insect; nc vertheless, the fact has been
clearly ascertained that, to such an ex-
tent is idleness carried, in one of the
species, that they are entirely depend
emit on their slaves-too lazy, in fact, to
feed themselves or clean themselves, 30
that it was actually found necessary, as
means of keeping them alive, to put q
few slaves for an hour or two every day
into the case in which they were con-
fined, in order that their domestic ar
rangements might be duly attended. to.
Unlike bees, ants have two or three
queens to nest; there are also three
distinct classes, the imperfect males, or
workers, the males and the perfect fe-
males Very little is known Of their
younger days, as their childhood is
spent in the dark Two ants working
at time are apparently sufficient to
supply nest of three of four hundred
with food. When it was noticed by
Sir John that two were working for
whole nest, he thought they might be
individuals remarkably fond of work, so
he removed them; two others, however,
Immediately took their places in forag-
ing, and, as soon as these two We're also
removed, two others took their place.
The intelligence of ants was likewise
tested by him, the conclusion arrived at
being that they are very stupid with re-
gard to locality: thus, on putting a
store of food to be reached by passing
over little cardboard bridges, it was
found that slightly shifting bridge
Or even to make use of supply of fine
mould put ready for them to help them
fill the gap; in some cases he arranged
route and then altered bridge, so
that slight jump of about one-third of
an inch was made necessary, but they
preferred going q circuit of IS feet
rather than take the small Jump.
Some of the most interesting expert
ments in this case we're in relation to
the manner in which ants recognize one
another. The idea that they will take
care of distressed comrade is, it ap-
pears, not borne out. He tried just
covering an ant with mould, where
many were passing and repassing, but
not one took any notice; some were
then put under the influence of chloro-
form, and these were carried away, re-
garded perhaps as dead by their COM
panions. Alcohol was then tried in
the place of cloroform, thirty intoxicat-
ed friends and thirty intoxicated stran-
gers being put together near a nest;
the ants were ut first puzzled at the
spectacle, nevertheless twenty of the
friends were taken into the nest, five
were thrown into the water, and the
others neglected, while of the thirty
strangers twcnty-four were thrown into
the water, and six were carried into the
nest, but mistake being at once found
out with regard to fonr of them, these
were brought out and thrown into
water-an act which, as Sir John re-