The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-05
'. WARFARE AMONG ANTS,
The Only Creatures Besides Man Th'

midable in Spirit and Method.
 The art of war is understood and practsed by only one kind of animals besides man. Those animals are ants. Ants are adopts in military science They know the whole business, from 8 guerilla movement to the siege of for- 1 tified city. Not all ants are warlike, 1t is true, but many species are extremely so, and of these the best example IS furnished by the Ecitons.
 l The Ecitons may be called exclusive l ly military, inasmuch as they have no l permanent homes, but spend nearly all their time in warlilSe expeditions Some species of them are found in Texas and elsewhere in the United States, but they are most numerous in Brazil. Their armies often number millions and move in serried columns. Nothing living can successfully oppose them, and the largest and fiercest crea- lures of the tropical forests fly before them to escape being devoured Wherever they move the whole world is set in commotion and put to preclpitate rout
 The main body of the army, disci- Ecitons as it moves forward in steady disciplined march is made up of the workers ants, so-called, though they are fighters as well as toilers For ev- cry one thousand workers there are perhaps fifty soldier ants" which are of the same breed, but specially built for fighting purposes, having enormous heads and powerful jaws. These sol- diers never carry anything or attend to any other business apparently, but | trot along on the Hanks of the column, being distributed at regular intervals ! like subalters officers. Their shining white heads make them very conspicu- ous, bobbing up and down as the regi- l ments pass over inequalities in the | road.
 l There are ten known species of these ants in Brazil. One of these, called 1 suggestively Predators, prefers the 1 phalanx formation. One of it's pha- lanxes on the march over clear and | smooth ground occupies a space of 1 from four to six square yards, the in- sects being densely massed While an army of Ecitons advances in compact | order slIirmishers are thrown out, and l here and there a small column leaves | the main body to forage. If some very ! line of mareh--for example, q mass of rotten wood abounding in insect grubs "a halt is ordered, and a strong force is concentrated upon it. The ants | search every cranny and tear in pieces all the large grubs they drag to light.
 An army of Ecitons as it moves for l ward clears the ground of all animal matter dead or alive. Every living creature that can get out of the way l does SO It is especially the various tribes of wingless insects that have cause to fear, such as other kinds of ants, heavy-bodied spiders maggots
 caterpiliars, etc. If a man making his way through the tropical forest hap pens to encounter a marching column of these ants he is instantly attacked
 Numbers of the ferocious insects swarm up his legs, and wherever they find bare spot they attack it, each one driving its pincerIilse jaws into the skin and stinging with it's tail with all It's might, The Eciton stings like q bee, being strictly "business' at both ends
 There is nothing for the man to do but run for it, and when he gets to a place of safety he proceeds to pluck off the insects one by one. Usually in the op- eration they are pulled in twain, leav- ing their heads and jaws sticking in the wounds. These military ants never let go when once they have grabbed any thing.
 | Dr H. w. Bates in his work entitled
 "A Naturalist on the River Amazon" l describes an attack by a. column of Eci- tons upon fortress-i. e, a great mound-shaped communal dwelling of another species of ants. The army be- gan it's assaults upon the works in a
 most systematic manner, excavating d series of mines. Operations were so
 thoroughly organized that some of the assailants did the digging, while others carried away the grains of earth, and
 others yet brought out the larvae of
 young ants which were found in the chambers of the structure besieged. As fast as the larvae were brought out
 they were torn to pieces, their weight
 being too great for a single Eciton to
 bear. The Ecitons are very small ants,
 though in some species the big headed
 soldiers" are as much as half an inch
 long, When the fort had been oom-
 pletely footed the column marched
 away, laden with the mangled remains
 of the victims. These were doubtless
 conveyed to some convenient place, to
 be eaten at leisure.
 It is not to be supposed that there
 was no defence made by the tribe of
 ants thus ruthlessly attacked; on the
 contrary, the resistance offered was
 very fierce. In ant wars generally the
 greatest pugnacity and courage are ex-
 hibited, the contest lasting sometimes
 for days, and the weaker party ulti-
 mately succumbing from sheer exhaus-
 tion and decimation. Fighting ants
 will suffer themselves to be cut to
 pieces rather than let go when they
 have once seized an enemy. In Brazil
 there is a, kind of ant that captures and
 enslaVes ants of other species This is
 a formidable insect indeed it's method
 of combat being to grasp the head of a
 foe in it's jaws and to kill by piercing
 the brain, thus paralyzing the nervous
 system. Owing to the efficiency of
 these tactics, comparatively small
 force Of the slaye-making ants will
 fearlessly attach much larger armies
 suffering scarcely any loss themselves In tropical countries ants are ex- tremely numerous and wars are con
 stantly in progress. These military in-
 sects have kingdoms which can boast