Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-07-08
ALL ABOUT ANTS.
Some Curious Stories About the Inhab
tants of Their Nests.

ALL A6OOi AN -
Some Curious Stories About the Inhabi-
tants of Their Nests.
Mr.. John B. Smith, assistant curator
of insects at the National Museum. read
before the Biological Society at its last
meeting an interesting paper on ''Ants'
Nests and Their Inhabitants. Ants
nests. the paper said, are found every
where in the woods, in the fields, under
the stone walls of cities and in houses;
not only on the ground, but in the trees,
and not only in the trunks, but among
the leaves. They are as varied in design
and general structure as are the locali-
ties inhabited. and while some species are
content to take advantage of simple
cavity under a stone where they rear
their young, others build great hills
full of intricate galleries. extending long
distances into and under the ground.
Mr.. Smith said that his object was not
to speak of the nests of the ants so much
as of their inhabitants. These are, of
course, primarily the ants themselves,
and by disturbing moderate-sized nest
of any of the larger species the observer
will become speedily convinced that
the population is not small
one But not ants alone are found
in these nests-there is a very distinct
fauna that lives with, and, perhaps,
partly on the ants, and the species of
which are never found elsewhere. In
Europe nests have been found where
the intruders or guests exceeded in num-
bers the ants themselves. The number
of species known to inhabit such nests
in Europe reaches well into the hun
dreds. over a hundred species having
been found in a single nest, while in
America comparatively few species have
been found.
In one interesting group described by
Mr.. Smith-insects which the ants col
lect and care for-the aphides or
plant lice, he said, played an important
part. 1t is well known, he said, that
the ants seek the plant lice and lick the
sweet eXcretions, but it is less known,
perhaps, that they also collect and rear
some species, providing homes for
them. A yellow species of lasius, oc-
curing commonly around Washington
and around New York, well illustrates
this group. The ants make their nests
under large stones and close to the roots
of trees or shrubs. They carefully exca-
vate galleries around a root, or series of
roots, and then collect the winter egg
of Pemphigus in large numbers, not by
hundreds, but by thousands, eggs that
no entomologist has yet succeeded in
finding. These are carefully placed in
suitable situations around the cleaned
root, and the Pemphigus, when Matched,
find their food supply ready at hand and
in return are expected to yield sweets
to the ants. The winged form of this
species leaves the nest and provides for
a continuation of the race. and the ants
are then compelled to lay in new sup
ply of eggs.
1t would be supposed that the ants
would be very careful to keep out all
enemies of these. their domestic animals;
but there is one species that gets in and
remains in undisturbed. 1t is the larva
OF a common .slady-bird''
cantha ursina. 1t secretes a waxy sub
stance that exudes in long strings,
and gives the insects the appear
ance of being covered with cot
ton or hoar frost. This secretion
seems to be much more palatable to the
ants than that of the Pemphigus, and
they unconcernediy see the s'lady-bird''
feeding upon the former, apparently
concluding that the flavor is improved
by passing through the latter. Some
times it happens that desired species
of aphid will not live underground, and
this compels the ants to adopt another
method. They construct roads to the
trees inhabited by the aphids, and build
galleries around the plant lice. effect
ually protecting and demonstrating
them.
Another group, the third mentioned
10y MIR. Smith, contains insects that are
found in the ants nest in the perfect
stage, and is the most numerous. 1t
comprises species of many orders and
of widely divergent families. Most of
the species are known in the image
state only, and it has long been, and is
still, puzzle to entomolOgists. where
the immature states of these insects are
passed. A species does not, except in
rare instances. inhabit the nest of more
than one species of ant. On
the other hand, each species of ant has
its own peculiar fauna of guests, so that
it is impossible, with a series of guests
ut hand. to tell exactly from what ants
nest they were obtained. The only ben
eft that is known to be derived by the
ants from any of the species is in the
shape of (probably) sweet secretion.
Prominent among these are the species
of Cremastochiluo, most of them species
OF immense size. as compared with that
of the ants with which they live. These
insect have glandiferous surface at
the hind angle of the thorax, covered
with a thin plate. and several speci-
mems have been observed where this
plate has been gnawed off by the ants to
facilitate the getting at the secretion of
the glands. These species are of large
size, and whole squads of ants have
been observed in the task of preventing
the escape of au individual that had ap-
parently become tired of its quarters
JpqSbi20tO52 Star