The Penn's Grove record., 1886-10-02
LIVE ANTS As DESSERT
4 Peculiar Luxury Which X
California Palatcs.

Dime with me to-day said a
friend, ''and 1 will promise You some
thing new. a bonnie bOuche never
dreamed of in your philosophy. l
did not believe 1t, but ] accepted an IN
yitation, with the understanding ihat
the line was to be drawn at mountain
lion or magpie, and that Chinatown
was not to be drawn on.
The dinner was served, and, by way
of dessert, the mikado IN attendance
brought in a silver salver, upon
which rested some objects that l as
sumed to be extraordinarily large cur
rants, of rich amber hue. My friend
took one, and l observed that 1t at
tempted to escape as he passed 1t TO his
mouth and bt off the amber-hued
globe as he would a cherry. AS he
did so a look Of extreme bliss passed
over his face, fading away, only to be
followed by another as he repeated the
operation.
Not to be outdone, l also took up one
Of the objects, which was a squirting
ant, swallowed it and became conscious
of having eaten a drop of honey, sweet
and agreeable, though the fact that
each morsel was obtained only by the
sacrifice of a d~efenceless insect was
somewhat of an objection. This
slaughter of the innocent continued FOR
a few moments, when my friend
scraped together a small monument OF
heads and, gazing at them reiectlVely,
asked me how | felt.
81 brought these he continued,
'sfrom way down IN southern Callfor-
mia, on the edge of Mexico, where they
live. They cost me about a cent
apiece, and l propose to introduce
them among my friends. In Mexico
they are considered a great dainty. l
first saw them in Old Mexico, where
l was stopping, and n day, in lunch.
ing wiz friend, he ordered a plate OF
these, 49, tell the truth, l would
have given a S. bill rather than to
have eaten one, but 1t would have Sc
rIously offended my Mexican friend to
have refused, SO l shut my eyes and
went it blind, literally, and after the
first one | was well contented 10 eat a
dozen, as If you can overcome the idea
of eating a living creature you are all
right.
My host observed my mOdesty and
laughed at me. You Americans are
curious people, he said. Il have seen
you watch a man stab a delicate oys-
ter, and while in its death struggles
madden it with condiments, a process
as cruel as throwing a human being
upon burning Goals, yet you object to a
single ant that Is 70 surcharged with
honey, so replete with the delights ef
honey, that it is insenslble to pain In
short, | became a convert, and after
that l could never get enough. You
see, we have a precedent In locusts and
wild honey. and the locust vas and is
an extremely disagreeable-looking OBJ
ject, and the wild honey was not as
sweet as this"
The ants thus served up by my cpl
curean friend were the famous honey
ants found-from Mexico to Co Orado
in this country, and in the east, and
while all ants are remarkable for their
seeming intelligence, these present GER
tain features almost beyond belief, and
when their story was first told in sclen-
titic memoirs by De Norman, WesmaeI
and others it was considered by many
as a huge hoax, invented by some fun
loving naturalist as a take-of on the
growing interest in economics.
The honey ant is a small red insect,
extremely demonstratlve and active,
and found particularly in Texas and
Navajo op6 in oopcidarabla rur,Iars
in Colorado. Their nests are promi-
nent mounds in some cases and again
are low heaps, spread over an area
twenty or thirty square feet, forming a
community. AS a rule they are noe
turnal, working at night, though / have
e e them at work in the bright sun
light at 3 O'Clock IN the afternoon, and
marching in a line, perhaps seven feet
wide and forty feet in length, to a
cottonwood tree, up which they passed
long and slender-coming down larger
and full of pure white liquid.
1t would strike ave ever a casual
observer as cur Gus that lheSe ants Were
carrying hOlHe a liquid that could
hardly be slowed away, ants not hav-
Ing, as a rule, storehousts for LIQUID
provisions; hut the honey ant over
comes this difficulty in a novel manner.
Certain of the ants, either by agres-
ment or selection, are util zed as recep-
tacles for the honey.food supply, and
become literally honey bottles. They
are kept by the others in a separate
apartment, about six inches long by
four feet in height, that is "A store
room. Here, if the nest is carefully
opened, the ants or honey bottles viii
be sen hanging on the wall, looking
liEn rim n,r,.nntn