The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-10-03
THE ANT


The Wonderful Intelligence and SKIN Of
This Remarkable Insect.
II you have ever had your head ex-
amitted the phrenologist would tell you
that it was very nice thing to have
good big head. But somebody else
might repeat to you the well-known
couplet;
Little head. little wit
Great head, not u hitl'
but how Is 1t with the ants, who have
such small heads and great witsP
There Is nothing ON earth, except
man. that can surpass the wonderful
devices of those heads, no bigger than
if they belonged to SO many pins.
Watch how they build their tunnels
and cover them in like so many railroad
engineers! See how they stop every
now and then ito study out their plans;
how they consider all obstacles and
avoid them; how they Use every leaf
and stick and straw to make wall or
roof to their galleries! But who is the
foreman, or ''noss,' as men sometimes
sayp A new plan is thought of, he goes
to work upon it, the others soon adopt
the improvement and help the skilful
inventor. They are all as busy as pos
sible, and yet they work always on one
common plan.
The Queen lays her eggs, the workers
ut once take care of them, running
with them from place to place, and al
ways with some end in view; and when
the baby ants come, il you could look
inside any busy little ant-hill, with the
rising of the sun. you might see these
careful little nurses (for they have real
nurses for their children just as we do),
who live in the upper stories of that
wonderful house, very early astir and
on their way to call their young masters
from down below.
And then you would see them tap
ping them with their antenn@, which
look like horps, as much as 10 say:
Come, children, time to get up; don t
you know the sun is upF'' and thus
waking them they carry them through
the long galleries that lead to the top
of the ant-hill, and lay them outside
very carefully that the bright rays of
the sun may warm them and help them
TO grow. And they are very careful,
too, not to leave them in the heat Of the
sun after the early morning. As soon
ss the air gets too warm they carry
them Into the rooms near the top where
the rays have penetrated, and where
the warmth eau still reach them, and
again further below if they think it best.
But the older ants can bear the sun,
and like to feel its rays; and though
they are very Industrious yet as they
begin to work with the dawn they take
a little rest, as people do sometimes in
the heat Of the day, and often lie heaped
together in the sunshine.
Just as long as the baby ants can not
run alone they are dressed like the
young children In the East, or like the
babies which the Indian squaw hangs
behind her back, or on peg in her tent
They have natural swaddling clothes,
for they are wrapped up so tightly in
their larval covering that no legs can
be seen, only head and wings, traced
through the transparent skin in which
they are folded. OF course you know
the baby ant begins life in an egg,
which, in couple Of weeks, is Matched,
and then the nurses take them in charge,
as we have said, to keep them clean, to
brush and comb and shampoo them.
and very soon they are ready to begin
the next change.
I If you could only look at these tiny
insects (the nurses) through q micro
scope, you would see on their legs
some very fine soft hairs, which they
use as brushes, and a spur close by,
which. if needful, we may imagine can
do the work of a comb. And the sham
pooling is done by working about,
kneading and distending the thin skin
which covers their limbs until it il
ready to open and let them go free.
Then these baby ants wind curtain OF
silk around their own little bodies and
60 to sleep, to wake up full-grown ants,
without guide, overseer and ruler,
except the tender services of the nurse
Isn't it wonderful that these little ants
can do SO much for themselvesp SO ex-
actly right. and in such order, too
each one knowing its business and do
ing it just as if they had commander
to order their every movement.
No one ant seems to have any person
al property, neither house, stores, MOI
eggs. Everything belongs to all, ane
vet while the whole world is wrapped
in lazy content in the summer wealth
er they are always laboring very hare
for the whole community. And if, per
chance, their little citadel is impaired
as is often the case. they repair tn,
ruin with the utmost neatness and dis
patch.
Did you ever see an ant seize pei
let, or stone, and drag it backward
up steep incline, using its hind legs t.
cling on to rough places. often tuggint
away at weight far greater. than tina
of its own bodyP Some hoist aloft il
their front arms, as it were, stick o
piece of grass, two or three times it
own length, moving it forward as If II
the air And when they build. eacl
addition is put in what each consider
the best place. but the general foiam o
the dome grows into a, cur ously regu
lar diminishing curve, as if every on
bore the architects elevation in hi
| pocket.
Some of these wonderful worker
| make desperate attempts to NOV
| heavy beams of wood. but after super
human exertions give up the attemp
| when clearly beyond their strength.
| a thing, however, is within the bound
! Of possibility. it IL surprising with wha
obstinate pertinacity they will return
--fe>k ~A.t~k hna rrilnd avyav fr<,r