Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-04
MATTER-OF-FACT ANTS.
business is Business With Them. and
They Display Great Intelligence.

Business is Business With Them. and
They Display Great Intelligence.
From the Kansas City Star.
T. 7. Lovelace of this city, who recently
returned from the intercontinental railway
survey through Central and South Amer
lea, says one of the most interesting things
to be seen in the tropics is the leaf-carry-
ing ants, which found as far south as
thirty-five degrees south latitude, which
corresponds to the northern part Of South
Carolina in the United States. I'm the
south latitude" says Mr.. Lovelace, II
found one species entirely black and an
other with the head, middle segment and
legs of a reddish brown color, while
Moro Island, nine degrees north latitude, I
found one species entirely black and an
other entirely red Here were two distinct
species, apparently, of leaf carriers, and,
what was more singular, was the fact that
Moro Island did not afford single tree or
bush for them to work on.
The leaf-carrying ant is peculiar to
tropical America. The two species occupy
different nests; they are never seen in the
same roadwayS, and they always enter diff
ferent holes: but these ants are such great
borrowers that one could not say positively
that the formicarieS do not communicate
with each other under ground. Their holes
do not cross, and there is no communica-
ton between the holes above ground. AS
an experiment, members of one colony were
transferred by hand to the path of another.
There was no conflict. The strangers
merely made haste to get away.
Both Species continued Mr.. Lovelace,
have the same habits, save that the red
fellows are the most Industrious. The black
ones always knocked Off work in the heat
of the afternoon, while the red ones strug-
gled along all day, although there were
fewer workers to be seen in the paths be-
tween - and O'Clock There being no trees
Moro Island n no
they gathered hay instead. A grass that
grew close to the earth and produced short
seed stalks was just coming in tassel. The
seed heads were just peeping out from
their enfoldng leaves when 1 was there,
and these heads of seed were the favorite
harvest. l saw half-nch ants carrying
seed stalks an inch long and of twice the
weight of the carrier. They also cut of
the grass leaves and carried them in. while
moist crumbs of bread and vegetables were
cut up and carried also. Very dry crumbs
were ignored l did not see them carry
meat of any kind, and when 1 put piece
of freshly killed grasshopper in their path
they refused to notice 1t. But certain bits
of damp. rotten wood were carried into the
nests as quickly soft bread.
"A peon who came to see what l found
OF interest in the little workers dropped a
flaming wax match among them. They did
not seem to see II, for they rushed into the
flame as they would have crossed a bit Of
paper. A number were burned to death,
while many of them We're crippled before
tIe iiaHe was eXtinSllSheQ- The dead and
the crippled remained in the path perhaps
two minutes at spot five feet from the
nest entrance. Then came a gang of work
ers from the nest, who picked up the dead
and the crippled and carried them several
inches away into the grass at right angles
to the path. The wounded were left unat-
tended, as were the dead. The workers
then attacked the eXtinguished match
taper. 1t was nearly an inch long, and a
dozen (by count took hold of it, pulled it
In all directions at once rolled ii and one
another over, stood on their heads and
crawled under it, while the leaf carriers
streamed by and over them, apparently
needless of their presence. 1t was a case
OF wholly undirected labor, for any two
POSSIBLY any one) could have dragged it
from the path, but II took the dozen fifteen
minutes to tumble it across two inches Of
the path.
while in Honduras American told me
that the leaf-cutting ant was to blame for
much of the laZiness of the natives, who
do not try to make gardens or cultivate
fruit trees because the ants destroy every
thing of that kind. However, the Amer
lean solved the problem of keeping these
ants away from his garden by digging a
ditch around 1t and keeping water running
through 1t, an effective barrier"