Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-11-28
Written for The Evening Star.
ANTS AND THEIR QUEER WAYS.
Insects Which Rival Human Beings IN
Point Of Intelligence

| insects winch Rival Human Beings IN
Point Of Intelligence.
How THEY LIVE AND MAKE THEIR xEsrs-wnA,
THEY FEED UpoN-rHKrR COWS AND OTHER DO
HEsTIc ANMALs-ANTs WHICH MOVE IN ARnrE,
SPECIES WHICH KEEP SLAVES
THOSE WHO HAVE STUDIED THE WAYS
Il Of ants have often asserted their claim to
rank next to man in the scale of intelligence
Nothing can well be more interesting than the
contemplation Of the habits Of these little in
sects, their social organization, their elaborate
habitations, their artfully constructed road
ways and their large communities, some OF
them rivaling London Picking in numbers
More than 600 species are known and no two
kinds are the same in their manner Of life.
Ants come into the world from eggs. which
are Matched from month to six weeks after
they are laid. When newly out of the shell
they are small white grubs, helpless, Of course,
and for thirty days or SO they are carefully
nursed and fed by the worker ants Usually
the little ones are assorted by their nurses &C.
cording to age for convenience in caring for
them, being divided like q school into five OF
SIX classes. At the end of a few weeks they
spin sllken cocoons about themselves from
L
sects and ss big as they will ever be.
SOME OF THE cLAssIFIoATroNs.
Ordinarily an ants nest contains an army Of
workers, which are females undeveloped sex
| ually. certain number of males and . few
| perfect females or ''queens." There are often
| several queens in one colony. They are pro-
| vided with wings, but. after a single flight for
the purpose of mating, they tear them off and
do not again quit the nest. In the habitations
of a species found in Mexico certain individ-
uals are found which serve as living honey
jars: They move about very little, and seem
to have no other purpose in life than to
contain in their enormously swollen abdomens
stores of honey for the benefit Of their COM
panions. Among certain ants common in
southern Europe some Of the workers have
hinge heads with very large and powerful jaws.
These are the soldiers and do the fighting.
The very young insects in a nest devote their
attention to taking care OF the little grubs, not
doing any outdoor labor until they are some
days old.
Some species Of ants make their nests out of
conical masses of sticks and leaves which they
heap up for the purpose. Others dwell en-
tirely under ground, while others still burrow
into the trunks of old trees. Sometimes the
habitations are very extensive, that occupied
by single community extending perhaps for
hundreds of feet.
THEIR FOOD AND HOW THEY GET IT.
Ants depend for food largely upon other in
sects, which they destroy in great numbers
They also eat honey and fruit. Many species
keep insects Of tie aphis kind for COWS, which
they milk by stroking them, thus causing them
to emit a sweet fluid. This fluid the ants
drink. Also they gather from plants the eggs
OF these cows and keep them until they hatch,
thus making sure of the stock. If nest is
disturbed the ants will carry off these eggs to
the lower chambers with the utmost haste
Having been lOb fba ipta no
are Matched in early spring, and the little
aphides are brought out and placed on
the young shoots of plants so that
they may thrive and grow. Other sorts Of in
sects seem likewise to live with the ants. With
certain OF the larger species smaller kinds
dwell, apparently being regarded as pets. Sir
John Lubbock, to whose book on this subject
the writer is indebted, suggests that these may
be called the dogs and cats of the bigger ants
Another small species, which makes its cham
bers and galleries in the walls of the nests of a
larger kind. is the bitter enemy of its hosts
The latter cannot get at them, because they
are too big to enter the galleries. Thus the
little fellows are quite safe, and from their
holes they make raids into the nurseries of the
larger ants and carry of the youthful grubs for
food. 1t is as if human beings had small dwarfs
about two feet long, living in the walls of their
houses and every now and then carrying off
some Of their children to devour in their dens
Ants appear to have many different games which
they play together.
BENEFICIAL TO PLANTS.
Ants are very beneficial to plants by killing
| of many small caterpillars and other injurious
insects. The inhabitants of one large nest have
been observed to bring in an average of twenty
eight dead bugs of different kinds per minute,
which would make more than 100. 900 DESTROYED
In day by that colony alone. Some ants for
age alone, while others hunt in packs or even
| IN armies. There are species which store up
seeds for food and many kinds are believed to
actually cultivate certain plants for their seeds.
permitting nothing else to grow within a given
area about the nest and carefully harvesting the
| crop. There are at least two kinds of
plants which cannot grow we'll without the as
slstance OF ants. As soon as the young plants
develop stem the ants gnaw at the base and
the irritation causes the stem to swell The in
sects continuing to irritate and excavate the
swelling, 1t assumes glObular form and may
become even larger than q mans head. This
globular mass contains alabarynth of chambers
and passages, which are occupied by the ants as
their nest. The mass increases in size with
growth, and from its rounded surface are given
| of small twigs bearing leaves and flowers. This
tumor on the stem has become a normal con-
dition of the plants, which do not grow health
lily without the insects.
OF the various species Of ants which travel in
armies for purposes Of forage probably the
| most remarkable are the drivers" of West
| is dead and decaying matter to be consumed,
and the dread of them often compels the people
of that torrid latitude to keep their towns and
dwellings comparatively clean. Their en-
trance into house is Immediately followed
by a simultaneous exodus of all rats, mice,
cock reaches and other vermin, which
promptly run away. They will de-
stroy the largest animals if they get a chance
at them, and they have been known to gobble
up gigantic snakes when the latter were
gOrged with food and powerless. The maraud-
| ing troops OF another species may fairly be
| compared in their movements and discipline
| to organized armies. Wherever they go all
ANT SLAVERY.
One OF the most interesting subjects of study
| in ants is the habit which many species have of
keeping other kinds of ants as slaves. Appar-
entity through having been long unaccustomed
| to do any work they have become unable to
| take care of themselves Accordingly they
attack the nests of weaker ants and carry off
| the young ones. both those in the chrysalis and
| the little grubs These they take to their
| own dwellings and bring up as ser
| wants. Some of them may be eaten, if there ia
| need of food but the others are fed and trained
| to labor tor their captors An army of ants
| will sometimes be seen to assail a nest. taking
possession of it after sharp fight and finally
| emerging, each soldier bearing forth in its
| mouth grub or a chrysalis.
| Some species OF slave-keeping ants afford q
striking lesson of the degrading tendency of
slavery. They have become entirely dependent
| on their slaves, no longer knowing how to