Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-07-30
Ant Antics.

Ant Antics.
Sir John Lubbock .'Considers Her Ways
and Describes Intersst:ns'y an Her
Sir John Lubbock recently read paper,
"Obscryations on Ants" before the Lin
mean Society of London. He said that in
one of his former papers he had given q
series of experiments made with light of
different coiors in order, if possible, to
determine whether ants had the power of
distinguishing cOlors. For this pdrpOse
he utilized the dread which ants, when in
their nests, have of light. Not unnatur-
aIly, if a nest is uncovered they think. they
ara being attacked, and hasten to carry
their young away to darker and, as they
suppose, safer place. He satisfied
himself by hundreds of experiments
that if hc exposed to light most of a nest,
but left any part of it covered over, the
Young would certainly be conveyed to the
dark portion. III this manner he ascer-
taincd that the different rays Of the spec-
trum act Oh them in q different manner
from that in which they effect us, for in
stance, that ants are specially sensitive to
the violet rays. But he was anxious to 60
beyond this and to attempt to determine
how far their limits of vision agree with
ours. We all know that if a ray of white
light is passed through prism it is broken
up into q beautiful band Of cOlOrs-the
spectrum. To our eyes it is bounded by
red at the one end and violet at tho other,
the edge being sharply marked at the rcd
end, but less abruptly at the violet. But
a ray Of light contains, besides the rays
visible to our eyes, others which arc called,
though not with absolute correctness,
heat rays and chemical rays. These,
SO far from being bounded by the
limits of our vision, extend far be-
yond it, tho heat rays at tho red, tho
chemical rays at tho violet end. He
wished, under these circumstances, to de-
tcrminc. if possible. whether the limits of
vision in tho case Of ants was tho same as
with us. This interesting problem he en-
deavorcd to solve as follows IL al ants
nest DO disturbed, the ants soon carry
their grubs and chrysalidcs underground
again to place of safety. Sir John avail
ing himself of this habit, placed some
ants with larvae and pupD between two
plates Of glass about One-eighth Of an
inch aparG-a distance which leaves just
rooIl enough for tho ants to move about
freely. Ho found that if he covered over
stance the young werc always carried to
the part thus darksued. lie then tried
placing over the nest different col
Orcd glasses and found that if he
placed side by side a pale yellow glass and
one of deep violet the young wcrc always
carried under tho former, showing that
though the light yellow was much more
transparent to our eyes, it was, on the
contrary, much less SO to the ants. SO far
he had gone in experiments already re-
corded. But he now wished, as already
mentioned, to 60 further and test the
effect upon them of tho ultra violet rays,
which to us are invisible. For this pur-
pose, among other experiments, he used
sulphatc Of quininc, and bcsulphidc of
carbon, both of which transmit all the
visible rays, and arc therefore perfectly
cOlorlcss and transparent to us, but which
completely stop the ultraviolet rays.
Over a part Of one Of his nests he placed
fiat sided bottles containing the above men,
toned fluids and over another part piece
OfdarE violet glass in every case the larvae
were carried under the transparent liquids
and not under the violet glass. Again, he
threw 4 spectrum into 4 similar nest and
foundthai if the ants had to choose between
placing their young in the ultraviolet
rays or in the red they preferred the latter.
lie iniers, therefore, that the ants perceive
the ultra a-vioiet rays, which to our eyes
are quite invisible. Now, as ever ray OF
homogeneous light which We can perceive
at all apperS to usa distinct color, it seems
probable that these ultra violet rays must
make themselves apparent to tho
ants as 4 distinct and separated color
(of which VIC can form no ideD bat
as unlike the rest as red is from
yellow or green from violet. The question
also arises whether white light to these
insects would differ from our white liyh:
in containing this additional color. At
any rate rs few OF the colors in nature
are pure cOlors, but almost all arise from
the combination of rays of different wave
lengths, and as in such cases the visible
resultant would be composed not only
of the rays which We sec but of these and
The ultra violet it would appear that the
cOlorS Of objects and the general aspect
of nature must present to them u very
different appearance from what they do
to us. Similar experiments which Sir
John also made with some of the
lower crustacea point to tho same
conclusions; but the account of
these experiments he reserved
to a future occasion. He then proceeded
to describe some experiments made on the
sense of direction possessed by ants but
it would not be easy to make these intelli-
gible without figures. After detailing
some further experiments on the power of
recognizing friends, he gave some facts
which appear to show that auts by selec-
tion of food can produce either a queen or
a worker at will from given egg.
Lastly. he stated that he had still some
ants which he had begun to observe in
1874, aud which are still living and in
perfect good health they now, therefore,
must be more than seven years old, being
by far the Oldest insects on record.
Tile Edif0risI s. w. ,,