Evening star., 1925-08-10

Go to the ant, thou sluggard-and
learn how to be a regular sluggard!
In considering instincts IN his THE
Origin of Species Charles Darwin
(much mentioned at the recent So
called evolution trial'D tells some
things about the slave-making instinct
of certain ants.
AS this is the most interesting sec
tion I have been able to find in this
book, ] pass 1t on here, in the belief
that others will enjoy reading about
the LATEST creature in the world.
Darwin was an Incompatible OBJ
server, who was willing to spend
hours at a time watching ants and
other insects, in order TO prove some
thing that he was anxious to prove.
Perhaps if you and I were as inter
ested In proving our point, we, too,
might be naturalists.
we shall, perhaps, best under
stand how instincts in a state of
nature have become modified by selec-
ton by considering a few cases" says
Darwin. Il will select only three,
namely. the instinct which leads TIE
cuckoo to lay her eggs in other birds
nest: the slave-making instinct of
certain ants and the cellmaking
power of the hive-bee. These two
latter instincts have generally and
justly been ranked by naturalists as
the most wonderful of all known in
stincts"
This slave-making instinct. he con-
tinues. was discovered by Pierre
Huber in tribe Of ants scientifically
labeled Formica rufescens. They are
the original aristocrats
This ant is absolutely dependent on
it's slaves" writes Darwin. without
their aid the species would become
extinct In a single year"
Think of that, The lazy beggars.
The males and fertile females do
no work of any kind, and the workers
or sterile females, though most ener-
gettc and courageous in capturing
slaves, do no other work"
These ants, evidently, have solved
the problem of how to get along with
out work, something that thousa nds
OF men have worked at, 10, these
thousands of years
These ants. Darwin continues, are
incapable Of making their own nests
or of feeding their own larvae. If
moving time" comes around, the old
apartment being found to be out-of.
style, the slaves select the new home,
and actually carry their masters in
their jaws to 1t.
The masters are too darn lazy to
even move
80 utterly helpless are the
masters" Darwin says, that when
Huber shut up 80 OF them with
out a slave, but with plenty of food
which they like best, and with their
own larvae and pupae to stimulate
them to work, they did nothing.
They could not even feed them
selves, and many perished Of hunger
Huber then introduced a single slave,
and she instantly set to work, fed
and saved the survivors; made some
cells and tended the larvae, and put
all TO rights
Our author points out that this
same Huber. most observing gentle
man, indeed, discovered Formica
sanguinea, another species of slave
maker.
Darwin himself made observations
on these bloody ants, as their name
labels them. He opened fourteen
nests, and found a few slaves In all.
Males and fertile females of this
species of ant slave are never observed
in the homes OF the slave.makers. but
only the sterile females. The others
live in communities Of their own.
The principal use of these slaves
seems 10 be to hunt for aphids, (plant
lice) which are the COWS" Of the ants,
being milked for their secretions.
Darwin tells of a spectacle he saw, as
follows:
"One day I fortunately witnessed a
migration of Formica sanguina from
one nest to another. and IL was a
most interesting spectacle to behold
the masters carefully carrying their
slaves in their jaws instead of being
carried by them, as is the case of F
rufescens
Another day my attention was