The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-25

fore an intelligent Canadian Govern
ment threw the Victoria bridge across
the ST. Lawrence, and the ant bridge
was formed of living tube of little
bodies CLOSELY knit together. The sus-
pension bridges of the South American
streams, built with such care by ma,
tiyes. with the use of much rope and
vine. was anticipated hundreds of years
before by ants, who hung themselves
! in a line, the one holding to the hind
legs of the one above him until rope
many feet long was formed. When
the hoating end was blown across the
river by kindly breeze, the lower ant
! seized twig or branch OF j tree and,
holding firmly, completed the living
bridge over which the migrating colony
or the burden-bearers could safely cross.
The small red ant, the pest Of the
pantry in country or town, IS as clever
as she is bothersome Many q time
despairing housewife has marked a
path of tar around the legs of tables
or refrigerators to find next day That
the engineering corps had brought
grains of sand to build bridge over the
tar, and that the workers were merrily
carrying off the sugar, syrup or what
ever they had decided to store away
for winter Once when sand was lack
ing it was found that the workers had
returned to their village and had
brought over drove of their cows and
had stuck them in the tar, cheerfully
sacrificing them to the urgent needs
OF commerce.
Learning that chalk lines drawn on
the floor would keep ants away, the
acid in the chalk being too strong for
the sensitive ant noses, man once
drew thick line around party of
ants that was foraging across his
kitchen floor He kept them there sew
eral days, as none would cross the
line. Finally, feeling sorry for them,
he chopped up some fine grass and
dropped it in the circle that they might
eat and keep from starving. Eat! Not
they. They simply seized the bits of
chalk line, built a pyramid, and when
IT was high enough pushed it over the
line, thus making a green bridge over
which the prisoners triumphantly
passed,
Miss Adele H. Flelde of New York
discovered many wonderful things in
regard 10 the colonies she kept in her
house. She found that they are blind,
deaf and dumb, and that they use their
antennae for almost all the purposes of
from four TO thirteen joints, and each
joint directs the ant in some special
sense. To remove one Joint would de-
pTivc the ant OF any idea Of direction
and she could never find her home. To
take away a certain other one would
make her fail to recognize her own
relatives. 1t is believed that ants tell
one another only by the sense OF smell.
as each of these tiny insects has a
m.l
talent of a bloodhound is nothing com
pared to that Of an ant when it is
necessary to trace by smell. Instead of
hearing with ears, Miss Field S colony
disccrned all vibrations. even TO the
very tinicst, through their feet.
They are very hard to kill An ant
that has been supposedly drowned sew
eral days has been known to suddenly
give herself shake when taken from
the water, then rise up and 90 about
A queen lived for a long while without
her head. They can go as long as forty
days without food, though they must
always have plenty OF water. both for
for moistening the stored
grain and for house cleaning purposes.
II is this ability to fast and not appear
to mind 1T that makes the slaves such
valuable acquisition.
The red ants prey on the black ant
villages, bearing away the adult work
ers or tho pupac cases in which the
babies are hidden, afterward setting
them to work as fast as they grow
Bug enough. Ants are not akin to any
other creatures of the animal world. il
is said, Yet they are vastly like human
beings in most respects. They even
had child labor in their villages long
before human beings thought it an ex-
PedIent means of supporting the idle
When war has decimated the ranks Of
the ant world and workers were ncccs.
sHrIly few, the halfgrown children have
many times been pressed into service,
with insufficient food. with the very
human result that dwarfcd and un-
hcaIthtuI race has been produced in
the offending village.
Miss Ficlde also proved that ants
love and hate and remember. She took
TWO hike colonies and for many months
she red one with the dainticst things.
was careful 10 disturb them as little as
possible, and the result was that they
soon learned her touch, would climb ON
her hands and rub her with their anten.
nae Inc other colony she disturbed in cv-
cry fashion, she let them get hungry. she
upset their housekeeping, and made vi
brating noises under their feet until
they would rush out and bite her when
she came near She also separated
families 10 tind that after a wear thcv
would recognize ono another.
Ants arc great fighters and ne
cuiiar code of honor, or else gross
indifference. obtains among them when
nghtS are III progress. When one ant
strays out and gets INTO Il hearty SCRAP
WIN an enemy from n rival town or
lamllN. the other ants merely let her
tight it out. Yet if an enemy strays in
to camp and picks on any particular
member Of the household the entire 30.
lice corps, and any workers that han
pen TO be near, Will fall on her and
promptly eXterminate her, If one mem
Der of the colony meets with an acci.
dent, such as being buried under a grain
or sand or bit of molnsses that
tlnm hi fnl sclnnLiSIs nttnn 80 IL.