Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-02-11
WONDERFUL ANTS.
SOME MARVELLOUS TALES ABOUT TEE
WONDERS OF ANT-LIFR.

Eow They Build, Fight, Store, Plot, IKE.
cute. Engineer, Reason. communi-
cate, and Labor.
The mode of working practiced by the
leaf-cutting ants of the Amazon is thus de.
scribed by Bates "They mount tree in
multitudes. Each one places it
self on the surface Of leaf, and cuts with
it's sharp, scissors.like jaws nearly semi
circle incision on the upper side; it then
takes the edge between its jaws, and by
sharp jerk detaches the piece. Sometimes
they let the leaf drop to the ground, where
little heap accumulates, until carried off
by another class of workers but generally
each marches off with the piece it has
operated on, and, as all take the same
road to the colony, the path they follow
becomes in short time smooth and bare,
looking like the impression of q cart-wheel
through the herbage." Other observers
have since said that this heritage is regu-
larly felled by the ants in order to make
road Each ant carries its semi-circular
piece of leaf upright over its head, go that
the home. returning train is rendered very
conspicuous. Keener observation shows
that this home-returning, or load. carrying,
train of workers keeps to one side OF the
road, while the ut-going, or empty
handed, train keeps to the other side SO
that on every road there is double train
of ants going in opposite directions. When
the leaves
ARRIVE AT THE NEST,
They are received by a smaller kind of
worker, whose duty it is to cut up the
pieces into smaller fragments. whereby the
leaves seem to be better fitted for the pur-
pose to which, as we shall presently see,
they are put. Tnese smaller workers never
take any part in the outdoor labor; but
they occasionally leave the nest, apparently
for the sole purpose of obtaining air and
exercise, for when they leave the nest they
merely run about doing nothing, and fire.
quently, as in mere sport, mount some OF
the semi-circular pieces of leaf which the
carrier ants are taking to the nest, and so
get ride home. From his continued OBJ
servation of these ants, Bates concludes
that the object of all this labor ia highly
remarkable one. The leaves when ga
thered do not themselves appear to be of
any service to the ants as food; but when
cut into small fragments and stored away
in the nests, they become suited as anidus
for the growth of minute kind of fungus
on which the ants feed. We may there
fore call these insects gardening ants,
inasmuch as all their labor is given to the
rearing of nutritious vegetables on arti-
fcially prepared soil. Ants of this genus
are very clever at making tunnels. The
Rev. III. Clark says that in one case they
| have made tunnel of enormous length
under the river Porahylia, where it is as
broad as the Thames at London-their OBJ
| ject being to reach store house which is
on the opposite bank.
HARVESTING ANTS.
The harvesting ants belong almost exclu-
sively to a single genus, which, however,
comprises number of species distributed
in localized areas al over the four quarters
of the globe. Their distinctive habits
consist in gathering nutritious seeds of
grasses during summer. and storing them
in granaries for winter consumption. Mog-
gridge found that from the nest in various
directions there proceeded outgoing trains,
which may be thirty or more yards in
length, and each consisting of double
row of snts moving in opposite directions.
Like the leaf-cutting ants, those composing
the outgoing train are empty handed, while
those composing the incoming train are
laden. But here the burdens are grass
seeds. At their examinations in the forag
ing ground or ant fields, the insects COM
posing these columns disperse by hundreds
among the yielding grasses. Then
they ascend the stems of the grasses, and,
| Selling the seed or capsule in their jaws, fix
! their hind legs firmly as pivot, round
which they turn and turn till the stalk is
twisted off. The ant then descends the
stem, patiently backing and turning up
ward again as often as the clumsy and dis
proportionate burden becomes wedged
between the thickly set stalks, and joins
the line OF its companions to the nest. Two
ants sometimes combine their efforts, when
one stations itself near the base of the
| peduncle, and gnaws it at the joint of
greatest tension, while the other hauls on
| it and twists it off DR.. Ellendorff made
the experiment of interrupting the advance
| of column Of these ants, with
THE INTERESTING RESULT
Which he thus describes in a letter to
Buchner Thick dry grass on either side
of their narrow road, SO that they could
not pass through it with the load on their
heads placed dry branch, nearly
foot in diameter, obliquely across their
path, and pressed it down so tightly on
the ground that they could not pass under
meath. The first corners crawled beneath
the branch as far as they could, and then
tried to climb over, but failed, owing to
the weight on their heads. Meanwhile,
the unloaded ants from the other side came
on, and when these succeeded in climbing
over the bough there was such crush that
the unladen ants had to Chamber over the
laden, and the result was a terrible mud.
die. l now walked along the train and
found that all the ants with their banner
cts on their heads were standing still,
thickly pressed together, awaiting the word
OF command from the front. When |
turned back to the obstacle I was aston
ished to see that the loads had been laid
aside by more than a foot's length of the
column, one initiating the other. And now
work began on both sides of the branch,
and in about an hour tunnel was made
beneath it. Each ant then took up its
burden again, and the march was resumed
in the most perfect order"
ECIToNs.
| The most astonishing insects. II not the
most astonishing animals, in the world, are
the so-called g foraging," or, as they
might more appropriately be called, the
military ants of the Amazon. Eciton
legionis moves in enormous armies, and
everything that these insects do is done
with the most perfect instinct of military
organization. The army marches in the
form of rather broad and regular column,
hundreds of yards in length. The object
of the march is to capture and plumber
other insects. etc, for food, and, as the
well organized host advances, its de-
vastating legions set all other terrestrial
life at defiance. From the main column
there are sent ont smaller lateral columns,
the composing individuals of which play
the part of scouts, branching off in various
directions, and searching about with the
utmost activity for insects, grubs, etc,
over every log and under every fallen leaf.
If prey is found IN sufficiently small quanti-
ties for them to manage alone, it is imme-
diately seized and carried to the main
column but if the amount is too large
for the scouts themselves to deal with,
messengers are sent back to the main col
umn, whence there is Immediately dis
patched detachment large enough to cope
with the requirements. Insects or other