Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1894-07-20
THE DEAD ANT QUEEN
SHE HAD LIVED FOURTEEN YEARS
AND HAD MANY COURTIERS.

AND HAD MANY CoURTIERs.
A Touching Scene at the House of Sir John
Lubbock-What Would Seem Trivial to
the Lay Mind Serious Matter to the Nat
uralist-Interesting Facts About Ants.
The waste Of life in an ordinary for
micary is great. Multitudes are contin-
ually perishing beneath the careless
tread of human beings and cattle. A
man or woman can hardly walk the
garden without destroying many lives
of busy creatures intent upon errands of
their daily life. Birds pick them up as
delicate morsel Toads and serpents
are fond of menu of living ants, and
other creatures prey upon them. There
fore it becomes necessary to recruit the
community day by day, and the number
Of recruits must exceed the daily waste
if the social power of the family is not
to be diminished. No wonder, therefore,
that the fertile queen is person of such
consequence and is SO carefully guarded.
But it may be asked, Is she able to
meet such demands upon her fecundity?
Quite SO. The number Of eggs which an
ordinary queen can lay in any one season
amounts to many thousands, and the
possible capacity of a single queen no
doubt reaches scores of thousands of fer
tile eggs
was permitted to note the touching
interest which focuses upon the queen
of formicary while visiting Sir John
Lubbock one summer morning at his
home in London. This distinguished
naturalist had succeeded in preserving
two ant queens to marvellous age, one
of these having reached the vast antiq-
uity Of IA years. This longevity was
due to the careful protection extended
by Sir John and his attendants, for it
is true Of emmett herds as we'll as of
domestic animals that they thrive under
human protection. AS I greeted Sir
John on the morning referred to, in re-
Spouse to an invitation to breakfast with
him and some Of his friends, I inquired
at once about the health of his ancient
queen
calais, doctor!'' he cried, "Ihave sad
news to tell you. My old queen is
deadp'
''Dead!" I exclaimed. "This is sad
news indeed. When did she die?"
"Only last night" was the response,
land have not yet told my wife about
it, for I dare say she will feel as badly
over the loss as myself %
Perhaps this may seem trivial to the
ordinary lay mind, but to Sir John Lub-
book and the writer it was serious
matter, for it ended one of the most in
teresting experiments as to the pro-
longed life of invertebrate creatures that
the world has ever known.
INLAY see the queen?' asked.
eyes; she is just here in the adjoin-
ing ROOM
Turning aside from the waiting COM
pany Of distinguished persons who were
to sit down with us at breakfast, we
went to see the dead queen. She lay in
one of the chambers, as have described
them, resting on her back, with her six
legs turned upward and bent i'll the rig
or Of death. A crowd of courtiers sur
rounded her. Some were licking her,
as though in loving care of her toilet.
One would nip an antenna and another
leg, and by various other solicitations
sought to arouse her. Alas, there was
no response! Itwas curious and touch
ing as we'll to watch their methods.
''They have not yet accepted the
fact said Sir John, ''that their queen
is really dead. Indeed doubt if they
are fully persuaded thereof. They have
been surrounding her thus and trying to
get some response from her ever since
she died"
So we left the royal deathroom.
Whether this interesting creature was
taken by its kindly guardian and placed
in collectors bottle, or upon an ento-
biological pin, or left for interment at
the hands Of her devoted courtiers,
never learned. But 10 one who wit
messed that scene could doubt the strong
interest and affection with which the
venerable queen ant was regarded by
her subjects.
Speaking of interment, it may not be
amiss to say that ants have a curious
habit of carrying the dead of their own
community from the confines of the for
micary, depositing them together in a
convenient spot outside the bounds. So
far as I have observed, they do not treat
the carcass of an alien ant in this way,
but appear to show this mark of respect
to those Of their own community alone.
This is the basis of the popular notion
that ants have cemeteries for the burial
of their brotherhood. I have verified the
fact to the extent above stated, and the
point opens an interesting field for
larger and more active study by some
enterprising lover of emmett life.
It has been said that the ant egg when
dropped by the queen is seized by one of
the attendants and carried away to the
nurses. These receive it and place it in
one of the chambers along with others
of its kind. In little while the egg be-
comes a little white worm, or larva,
with greedy appetite for sweets 1t is
as helpless as human baby and as de-
pendent upon the care of adults That
care is not wanting. One can hardly
fail to notice also the common charac-
teristic of maternal fondness in dealing
with these baby ants. The nurses shift
the little ones back and forth, from one
position to another, as far at least as
human being can judge, without having
bettered the matter in the least. SeeE-
ingly they have only INDUCED the fancy
of mother to move about her baby just
to crafty her own affections. They even
appear to me at times to take the little
things up and dandle them, after the
fashion of a young mother and her first
infant However, all this may be bnt
"anthropomorphism," a state of mind
from which the observer Of social in
sects can scarcely ever wholly escape
Rev. ii, G. McCook In Northwestern
Christian Advocate.
If time is money, why can't man
pay his barber with the time he spends
waiting for his turn?