Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-05-30
Intelligence of Ants.

Intelligence of Ants.
condensed from Mr. George ]. Romanes' paper in thu
I Nineteenth Century.l
SPECIAL SENSE.
1t has been long known that The sense
of smell in ants is highly developed, anC
it appears to be the sense on which, like
dogs, they mainly rely. Huber proved
that they track one another's footsteps ir
finding their way to food, ETC.; for he
! observed, on drawing his finger across
the trail SO as to obliterate the scent, tina,
the ants became confused and ran about
in various directions till they again came
upon the trail on the other side of the
interrupted space. By many rgeniously
devised experiments Lubbock has amply
confirmed Huber's statements, and con
cludes that in finding treasure "lhey are
guided in some cases by sight while in
| others they track one another by SCENT
| depending, however, more upon scent
| than upon sight.
There can be little doubt that ants have
sense of taste, as they are so well able
to distinguish sugary substances, and it is
unquestionable that in their antennss they
possess highly elaborated organs of touch
POWERS OF COMMUNICATION.
The recent observations of Bates, Belt
Moggridge Hague, Linceum, McCook and
Lubbock leave no doubt that ants are able
to communicate information to one another
by some sys'cm of language or signs.
Two or three instances will be enough to
select In order to prove the general fact
Hague, the geolo9st, kept upon his
mantel shelf Il vase of flowers, and he
noticed q file of small red ants on the
wall above the shelf passing upward and
downward between the latter and small
hole near the ceiling. The ants, whose
object was to get at the flowers, were at
first few; but they increased in number
during several successive days, until an
unbroken succession was formed all the
way down the wall. To get rid of the
ants Hague then tried, frequently brush
ing them off the wall upon the floor in
great number; hut the only result was
that another train was formed to the
flowers ascending from the l)or. He
therefore took more severe measures, and
struck the end of his finger lightly upon
the descending train neal the flower vase,
so killing some and disabling others
1.-The effect of this was immediate and
unexpected. AS soon as those ants which
were approaching arrived near to where
their fellows lay dead and suffering, they
turned and fled with all possible haste,
and in half an hour the wall above the
mantel shelf was cleared of ants" The
stream from below continued to ascend
for an hour or two, the ants advancing
"hesltatingly just to the edge of the shelf,
when, extending the antenrp and stretch
ing their necks, they seemed to peep
cautiously over the edge until beholdng
their suffering companions, when they too
turned, expressing by their behavior great
excitement and terror" Both columns
of ants thus entirely Disappeared. For
several days there was II complete absence
of ants; then a few began to reappear;
"but instead of visiting the vase which
had been the scene of the disaster, they
avoided it altogether" and made for
another vessel containing flowers at the
other end of the shelf. Hague here
repeated the same experiment with exactly
the same result. After this for several
days no ants reappeared; and during the
next three months it was only when fresh
and particularly fragrant flowers were
put into the vases that Il few of the more
daring ants ventured TO struggle toward |
them. Hague concludes IA letter to Mr.. |
Darwin, in which these observations are
by saying:
"To turn back these stragglers and
keep them out of sight for number of |
days, sometimes for a fortnight, it is
sufficient to kill one or two on the trail |
The moment the spot is reached |
an ant turns abruptly and makes for
home, and in a little while there is not an
ant visible on the wall
RECOGNITION.
/ shall now pass on to consider class
Of highly remarkable facts. 1t has been
Known since the observations of Huber
hat all the ants of the same community
one another rs friends, while an
mt introduced from another nest, even
hough it be an ant of the same species,
s known at once TO be a foreigner, and is
Usually maltreated or put to death. Huber
ound that when he removed an ant from
, nest and kept it away from its compan.
ons for period of four months it was
till recognized as Il friend and carressed
,y its previous fellow citizens after the
manner in which ants show friendship,
liz, by stroking antenna. Sir John Lub
,ock, after repeating and fully confirming
hese observations, extended them as
ollows:
He fil st tried prolongingS Sthe period of
eparation beyond four months, and found
hat it might be made more than three
lines as long without the ants forgetting
heir absent friends. Thinking that this
act could only be explained either by all
he ants knowing each others personal
ppearance, or BY their all having a
distinctive smell peculiar to each nest, or
y their all having a sign, like a pass
vord, different in different nests, Sir John
red separating some ants from nest
While still in the condition of larva, and,
yhen they emerged as perfect insects,
them back to the nest from
7hich they had been taken as larva. OF .
curse the ants in the nest could never
ave seen those which had been removed,
Dr. larval ant is as unlike the mature
1sect as caterpillar is unlike butterfly;
either can it be supposed that the Larvae,
nus kept away from the nest, should
etain, when hatched out as perfect
1sects, any smell belonging to their !
aren't nest nor lastly, is it reasonable to
nagine that the animals, while still in
he condition of larvaI grubs, can +
ave been taught any gesture or sign
sed as password by the matured
Yet, although all these possible
ypotheses seem TO be thus fully excluded
y the conditions of the experiment, the
esult showed unequivocaly that the ants
IL recognized their transformed larvm as
ative born members of their community.
Next, therefore, Sir John Lubbock tried
ividing nest into two parts before the
ueen ants had become pregnant. Seven
months after the division the queens laid
Ieir eggs, and five months later these