The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-03-14
PRIVATE LIFE OF ANTS.
Demonstration O.
Their Power OF Reco1lectio

Sir John Lubbock, NJ p, delivered
last week a lecture on Ants TO the
members of the Royal British Nurses
Association at the rooms of the Zoolog
ical Society Hanover square, w. The
lecture was the first of a series to be
given on various subjects to the nurses
during the session. Sir Dyce Duck
worth, a Vice President of the associa-
ton. presided, and there was a large
audience Sir John Lubbock COM
menced by describing his method OF
observ ton, and said that he had been
able to make the ants under investiga-
ton SO comfortable that they lived as
nearly as possible under natural conoi-
tons. Their life was much longer than
had been supposed. He had kept many
for several years, TWO queens had
reached the age of fifteen years, and
these We're by far the Oldest insects on
record. Ants watched over their young
with q skill and tenderness. which not
even the Royal British Nurses could
excel, says the London Times" They
never quarreled, and no one had ever
seen a dispute between two ants be-
longing to the same nest, yet they were
very brave and defended their homes
like little siX-legged Leonidases. Unlike
the so-called higher animals, they never
turned against weak or wounded
companion. one of his ants had come
into the world cripple, but she was
carefully tended and fed for months
by ner companions. All the ants of q
community knew one another and they
would not tolerate a stranger even Of
the same species. in the nest. He had
separated nest into halves and found
that even after eighteen months they
still recognized their Old companions
They cid not. however. show any pleas
ure or surprise at meeting them again.
1t had been suggested that ants recog-
nized one another by a sort of pass
word, but that was not the case. lie
has made fifty ants quite drunk and
incapable and then put them near d
nest To which twenty-five OF them be-
longcd- These twenty-five were car
ried back into the nest. where. no
doubt they slept off the effects of their
involuntary debauch: the other twenty
five were thrown into the meat which
surrounded the ants park. The senses
of ants differed in many respects from
those Of humanity. They probably
heard sounds which were inaudible to
us, and saw the ultraviolet rays which
were invisible to us. Some species kept
slaves, and one kind has lost the in
stinct OF feeding and would starve if
left TO themselves, even if food We're
provided. He had found, however, that
they would live for weeks if they had d
slave for an hour a day to feed and
clean them. Several species kept aph-
ides which they MIXED like cows, and
he had found that in the autumn they
collected the eggs of the aphides and
kept them all through the winter, al
though they We're OF no use. and the
young aphides Matched from them gave
none of the sugary fluid till the follow
| ing May or June, so the ants showed
more thrift and forethought than many
| human beings. Their instincts, though
so wonderful, were very limited, and
| yet when ants were watched building
| their nests. feeding their young, de-
| Tending their homes, making roads,
| tending their domestic animals, and in
| some cases. their slaves, it was diff
cult 10 suppose that they We're uncon-
| scious automatic and though their men,
! tai powers We're, no doubt, greatly in
| ferior to ours. the difference was prob
| ably not SO much in kind as in degree.