The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-01-24
ABOUT ANTS.
Their Homes and Their Habits.


Master Charles K. Bolton, fifteen
yea old. contributes the following ih-
teresting article to the CONGREGATIONAL
isl. He had no help in writing it. If
other boys would turn their attention to
natural history it might keep them out
of mischief, to say nothing of the in
struction and discipline they would re-
ceive:
Some warm day, when you do not
know what TO do, find an ant-hill under
a shady tree and watch the little fellows
at their work. This is what / have been
doing. The ring of earth around the
hole, like the wall of q fort, is familiar,
but the most interesting part of their
home is underground. See them drag
the pebbles out of the hole in the center.
If you could follow it down you would
find the way irregular, and at the end
number of galleries, each supported by
little pillars of earth. The young ants
are kept on these shelves, and, in fact,
it is their city.
Here. the CHI eff men meet to talk over
the matters of the colony. But how can
they talk? Put an ant under the micro
scope and you will see two little pro-
lectures on the head called mandibles.
The ant touches its mandibles to those
of its neighbor, and thus they speak.
Ants are very strong, persevering and
industrious, some working all night. l
have seen an ant carry STOKE three or
four times its size. They are fond of
sweet things. Once | laid piece of
sugar near hole. An ant soon found
it, and although the piece was many
times as large as itself, It lifted the
sugar above it; head and started for the
hill All went well uutil the hill was
reached. 1t would get hold of the sugar
and attempt to drag it up, but when the
first pebble was struck it would roll
over and over. And last, by leveling a
place so as to get q start, by the Occa-
siOnal help OF Il passing ant, the sugar
was pulled over the hill.
l noticed spider, one day, stop to
rest near an ant-hill The ants soon
They took hold of his legs and swarmed
on his back. He was dragged into the
mole and the rest locked out to help eat
him up. The ants carry their young
out every pleasant day to lie in the sun,
and at the first sight of rain they hurry
them into their house. These little
creatures have good memories and
never forget their friends. If an ant be
taken out of an ant-hill, kept for two
months and then put back into the
same hill, it will be received; but if it
be placed in another, it will be killed
In Texas there is found the agricult-
ural ant. These clear place from
weeds and grass for about two feet
around their house. Then they drop
the seed OF kind of grass, whose grain
they like very much. The ants take
care of the young blades. protecting
them from insects, and when the grain
is ripe carry it into their homes. But
what is more peculiar, if the store of
food should become damp during
rain, it will all be carried out on the first
sunny day and dried, and then brought
back.
One of the most interesting things
about the ant nation is their cows,
which are kept and herded like ours.
Some small insects, called aphides, or
plant-lice, have two little horns on the |
abdomen. When the ant is hungry it |
touches these horns with its mandibles, |
and the aphis gives out a drop of sweet |
fluid of which the ant is very fond. |
These aphides live ON the sap OF trees. /
The "miner" ant, which is very timid, |
makes little room under ground for |
its flock. The colony which has the |
most cows is considered the wealthiest.
In South America great armies of |
ants start out plundering everything !
they meet. Even horses and men flee |
before them; they 90 ali through \ |
house, killing and eating up everything |
that they can find. When they come |
to a river. they climb upon limb that !
hangs over the water. One ant hDlds |
on to the end of the traneh; another /
lakes hold of the first, and so on until |
they have formed long string. They |
hang in this way until the end, floating |
on the water. is carried across by the |
wind or current. When it touches the !
opposite shore an ant catches hold Of a |
stick or weed and so makes a living
chain. On each side of this chain an |
other row is formed, so that the bridge !
is three ants wide. Over it the whole !
company pass. tits even said that these |
bridges are sometimes made hollow or |
tubular, so that the yORng ants may be
protected from the sun When the wet |
season comes and the ground is covered
with water, the ants form themselves into
oalls. as large as an orange, and float
around sntil it goes down.
In some parts OF the world there are
''red'' or warrior ants These do
not like to work. and are not able
to feed thcAseiveS. Huber, the
naturalist. to prove this. pat number
of ants into a glass case with some OF
their fayorite food, but they could not
eat it, and many died of starvation. He
then put in single black ant, which
had been kept as a servant by the red
ants This Immediately carried food
to them. and in a short time they were
prospering. The black ants are very
indu trioas, so the warrior ants steal
their young to bring up as slaves. The
red are great fighters, and the black
like to work for them because they are
well protected. Each summer the war
riors make a raid on their black neigh
bors, because if the slaves should die,
the COLONY would Derish The robbers