The Mt. Sterling advocate., 1900-11-27
INSECT STRATEGY.
How Colony of Ants Disposed Of
Dead Wasp.

How a Colony of Ants Disposed Of q
Dead Wasp.
Some very peculiar things may oc-
casionally be observed in the natural
world if people only have the eyes to
see them. K. A. Suverkrop gives in
the Scientific American the following
instance of ant sense which the writer
says came under his notice several
years ago:
81 had just killed a wasp and left
the carcass on the ground, waiting
for one Of my friends the ants to re-
move it. Along came one fellow,
walked all around the wasp's body,
making notes evidently of size, quail
ity of flesh. etc, and off he went and
brought up small army Of his broth
ers. OF these some fell to and de-
voured the soft portions of the body
which would not keep, while others
began to dissect ready for storing the
harder portions which would keep for
winter consumption. The day was
gusty. and my attention was attracted
in particular to one little chap who
was trying to get TO his ant hill with a
wing he had severed from the body.
He would struggle along two or three
inches. when sudden gust of wind
would blow him and the wing back
further than he had advanced. He
put up with this till he found it hope
less, then carefully laying the wing
down and piling the largest grains of
sand be could lift on ii so that the
wind would not blow it away, re-
turned to the body of the wasp and
got three of the ants who had been
feeding while he worked and brought
them back to where the wing was. at
the same time evidently explaining to
them the difficulty of carrying such
bulky piece on a windy day.
"They all got on the side Of the
wing where the heavy Strengthening
rib is and began to roll the wing up
just as one would roll flag around its
staff. When this roll was finished.
three cuts were made through it by
three pair Of ant mandibles, and the
four short, easily hauled rolls of wasp
wing were successfully carried 10 the
ant-hill by four industrious ants.
"A curious instance of the ability
of an insect to successfully measure
distance was evidenced once while
was travelling through northern Ar
gentina.
81 first made the acquaintance Of
my friend on the back veranda Of
little village tavern. l was lying in
a hammock. About two feetfrom me
was a three by ihree-inch handrail of
wood, supported by wooden balusters.
As l lay there | noticed a fly alight on
the top Of the wood. While | watched
him, the fly apparently turned into
spider. ! could not believe my eyes.
but on closer inspection | saw that a
spider had jumped from somewhere
and alighted on top Of my fly. [
thought this worth watching. and
found that this was his method of |
procedure. A fly would alight on top |
Of the railing, the spider would take
in the distance at glance, and would |
disappear down the side Of the rail at |
right angles to the position occupied |
by the fly when he last saw it. Then
he would walk nearly TO the top Of the |
rail and fasten his web, then walk |
down, paying out his web as he went. !
-il he was as far from the place where
he had fastened his web as was the
fly, then one vigorous leap, the web
swinging him around in the arc Of a
circle, and be would alght on top of
the fly.
81 have never seen one miss this
seemingly difficult leap, except when
the fly left his position before the
spider had finished his preliminaries."