Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1901-11-08

Man looks entirely to the outside
world about him for the means of ac-
complishing his purposes; insects, on
the contrary, drawing upon the re-
sources of their own natural constitu-
tions, often adapt themselves to the
conditions and requirements OF their
lives by structural notifications.
For instance, men make the TOOLS
they require for carving or for digging.
insects grow them; vessels being need
ed as receptacles for liquid food, man
learns the art of the potter, but the Gu
rious honey ants transform themselves
into living bottles, to which the work
ing members of the commune resort FOR
refreshment.
The tools of insects, exquisitely Iasn-
ioned and finished, are much more per-
fectly adapted for the purpose they
serve than are any contrlved and man
ufactured by human beings, but there
is a disadvantage connected with them
they cannot be laid aside. The tools
dominate the tool-bearers, and check
development in any direction not con-
nected with their use.
This leads to the extreme specializa-
tion we find among insects. The egg
producer, the queen of the termites,
although she possesses the usual num-
br Of limbs belonging to her species, is
| totally incapable of locomotion, as are
the living bottles of the honey ants
The queen lays eggs, she can do moth,
ing else; the living bottles store up and
yield food to other members of the for
micary, and are as incapable of per
forming other uses as If they were
mere lifeless cells in honeycomb.
Among the ants this tendency to spe
cialization has resulted in establishing
species limited to particular industries
or to particular methods of living
/ Some species of slaye-making ants, fol
/ instance, confine themselves so entire
| ly to military affairs, and have so en-
cheney in domestic affairs, that they
are not only obliged to depend upoI
their slaves to care for the young il
the formicary, but to have the foot
placed in their own warlike mouths
and would starve in the midst of plen
ty were this not DONE
The mandibles of these ants are en-
tirely unified for work. They cal
neither crush, cut, nor saw, but, being
sharply pointed and curved, they maxi
most serviceable weapons.
The workers of the EastlIndian phei
g / n
gigantic soldier ants, hundred time
as large as themselves, and it woult
naturally be supposed that these bi,
creatures with enormous heads woult
prove formidable defenders of the for
micary while the truth is that, so ia
from this being the case, they canno
bite at all, even when provoked to d.
SO.
4 And yet the smaller members of tn
8 pheidologeton commonwealth find
use for the great creatures. Number
of them may often be seen riding about
as human beings do upon elephants
/ upon the heads and backs of their 81
gantic confreres.
But the Colobopsis ants, which bur
row in branches, seem to have discoy
cred how to profitably employ the bi
heads among them. They are place
. at the entrances of the formican dwell
ings, their great heads fitting in an
filling the doorways.
AS worker belonging to the house
hold approaches she is recognized b
''the animated and intelligent from
door," which draws back sufficiently t
admit the entrance to it's friend an
then resumes its double Office of sentr
: and barrier.-Scientific American.