If the question should be propounded which next to man is the most intelligent of animals, the reply might be, the ants; for after a careful study of all the ways and habits of these small insects, it will be very evident that the lives of many are conducted with more method than the lowest human lives.
The ants belong to the great group called Hymenoptera—insects with membranelike wings, including the gall flies, bees, and wasps.
Ants are found everywhere. Long lines are seen marching along, some coming, some going, in countless multitudes. Yet drop a strange ant into this highway and it is at once discovered and in danger. If water is poured into a nest of ants, the inhabitants come rushing out. Some come to fight, and others bear in their mouths the young (Fig. 244), countless thousands, to a place of safety.
The ant is a trim, vigorous individual, fleet of foot, tireless, never weary, brave, industrious, a type of the worker. The head is large. The eyes are compound, with three single eyes. The antennÆ are long, slender organs by which ants appear to recognize friends or foes, and possibly talk with them in some way. Certainly when two ants meet, a very strange interchange of courtesies with the antennÆ is performed. The males and females are winged, and there is a third kind without wings, called workers.
Fig. 244.—Ants removing their young to a place of safety.
Fig. 245.—Tunnels of ants.
Ants live in vast communities of from one hundred thousand to five hundred thousand or more. They excavate the soil and gravel, descend into the ground, and tunnel it in every direction (Fig. 245). In certain places they store food, in others eggs. The affairs of their vast underground city are carried on with a marvelous method. Although the ants have wings, these are soon cast away. At certain times the winged males and females swarm out of the nest and fly away, forming other communities. The males soon die; the females rid themselves of their wings, and thereafter remain in their new nests. The entire work of the community falls upon the so-called workers. They make the nest, repair it, do the fighting when necessary, move the immature young or eggs, shut up the nest at night, and open it in the morning. The eggs are minute, and as soon as laid are taken by the workers, or nurses, as they are also called, and carried to favorable places, where they are carefully watched. They are shifted about and occasionally for some reason brought above ground. The larvÆ, when they hatch (Fig. 246), appear as little worms, or grubs, which would starve if they were not constantly fed by the nurses. If it is too cold, these babies are taken up into the sunshine, or placed in some hall near the surface where the sun's rays can reach them. Finally they change to the pupa stage and are covered by a web. They are still cared for with the greatest solicitude by the nurses, which stand by when they finally hatch out and aid them in their entrance into the world. Nurses in every sense of the word, their care at this time is one of the most remarkable exhibitions of human traits in a lower animal known. Many other human traits find their prototype among these minute animals. They care for the young, the sick, and the wounded; they go to war, capture their foes, make slaves of them, and force them to work. They keep certain insects for the pleasant odor they afford and others for the secretions they emit, the latter action resembling keeping and milking cows. Ants build remarkable houses arranged in rooms for various purposes; they plant gardens to raise certain crops; they introduce plants that will provide certain food; they retard the growth of seeds in their granaries; build vast underground or covered roads to escape the heat; they make bridges to cross streams; and in numerous other ways they demonstrate their remarkable intelligence.
Fig. 246.—Egg and larvÆ of the ant.
The extent of the homes of ants is astonishing when we bear in mind the size of the insect. Some often extend many feet underground, and their tunnels have been traced beneath the broad Paraiba River of South America.
Many different species of ants are known, all interesting for their singular ways of living. The foraging or slave-making ants of Africa go to war against other ants. Such foraging trips are carried on with remarkable discipline, and the warriors may be seen returning, a triumphant army, bearing the eggs and larvÆ of the enemy, which they nurse and bring up as slaves. These slave makers are large and powerful Ecitons, the dominant race of the ants.
Among the slave-making ants the owners often become so dependent upon the slaves that they are almost helpless, and would starve were it not for these dependents. The so-called honey ants of Texas exhibit some remarkable traits in the manner of their lives (Fig. 247). These ants, which I have observed in the Garden of the Gods, Colorado, select certain individuals as storehouses and supply them with honey until the abdomen is expanded to many times its size, resembling a bottle. The ants when filled are placed in a compartment made for the purpose, and there hung to the wall, animated honey jars, which are taken down and made to give up their sweets as occasion demands. These honey balls are considered a delicacy in Mexico, and are served as dessert.
Among the ants, those of Texas known as the agricultural ants are remarkable for their intelligence. They are farmers, laying out places which they cultivate with a certain plant, which is especially to their taste, just as farmers plant corn.
