Hyatt Verrill
wrote about ants a number of times including the
science fiction story, “World of theGiant Ants”. The illustrations for this story are his own and resemble the illustrations used in that story. (I notice the blog linked story does not contain those images, sorry.)/drf
Some Ants and their
Ways
By A. Hyatt Verrill
Everyland magazine, Nov. 1916. Everyland Nature
Club column. Digitized by Doug Frizzle Dec 2011.
YOU all know what busy little
creatures the ants are, and no doubt
many of you have watched them as they hurry about hither
and thither as if intent on some
very important business. So, too, you may have seen an ants' nest and wondered
what was inside of it and how the
ants lived.
But if you could watch the ants at their
every-day life, you would be filled with wonder, for in many ways ants are most
intelligent creatures and many of their
actions and habits seem as if inspired by reason, while in some things the ants have really improved upon man's ways.
Even the
commonest ants have very wonderful habits, and one of the
most remarkable of these is the manner in which the
ants keep cows. Of course they are
not real cows like ours, but tiny insects known as aphids or plant lice; but to
the ants these
creatures serve the purpose of cows
and they are just as carefully tended
and cared for and pastured as are cattle kept by human beings. The aphids give
forth a sweetish substance known as "honey dew," of which the ants are very fond, and it is to secure a supply
of this substance that the ants keep
their little six-legged cattle.
To protect the aphids from the
rain, the ants build little sheds
over them and if the plant, on which the
aphids are feeding, wilts or dies the
ants pick up their cattle and carry them carefully to a strong plant where they may be sure of plenty of good food. When cold
weather approaches, the ants carry the
eggs and pupæ of the aphids into their own snug nests. Here they
are carefully guarded and watched throughout the
winter and in the spring, when the aphids hatch out, the
baby cattle are carried out of doors and placed on plants where they may find plenty of fresh sap on which to grow
big and strong.
But the
aphid cattle are not the only
insects which live with the ants in their underground homes. Several kinds of beetles,
as well as spiders and wasps, may often be found in the
ants' nests and on the best of terms
with the owners. Funnily enough some
of these make their
meals off the baby ants and nobody
has ever been able to explain why the
ants, which are so wise in most ways, should allow these
unwelcome guests to remain in their
homes. Not only do these strangers
live with the ants, but their young depend upon the
ants to act as nurses for them. When
one of the baby beetles is hungry,
he strokes and pats the face of an
ant in a very funny way and the ant
at once gives the hungry youngster a
drop of honey-like liquid from its own mouth.
Another
funny thing about the ants is that they have slaves; and the
queerest thing about these
slave-keeping ants is that they are
red while their slaves are black!
When a nest of ants finds
that it needs slaves a regular army is formed, skirmishers are thrown out, and
scouts go here and there and search
about until a nest of black ants is found. Then the
red army of warrior ants rushes on the
city of black ants and a very fierce and bloody battle is fought. But the red soldiers are always stronger and fiercer
than the blacks and very soon all the black fighting ants are killed or wounded and the victorious army loots the
nest and carries off all the eggs
and pupæ and takes them to the red ants' city.
When they
return, laden with their prizes, all
the other
red ants come out to meet them and
act as happy and joyful at the safe
return of their army as do human
beings when they have won a battle.
All the
eggs and pupae of the black ants are
then taken into the red ants' nest and are guarded carefully until they hatch out and grow up. Oddly enough the black slaves raised in this way are very willing
and obliging and do all the hard
work of the red ants' city without
trying to escape or shirk. The slaves even feed the
baby red ants, as well as the
full-grown ones, and some species of slave-holding ants have become so
accustomed to being fed by their slaves
that they cannot feed themselves and would die of starvation if it were
not for their black servants.
Some ants do even more
remarkable things than these,
however. In Texas
there is a kind of ant called the Horticultural Ant, which raises regular crops of
certain kinds of grass on the seeds
of which the ants live. Not only do they plant and weed the
young grass but they also carry
manure to their gardens, keep the soil loose, and free from other plants and, when the
seeds are ripe, they gather them
and store them away in regular
granaries.
In tropical America there is a remarkable species of ant known as the Army Ant. These little creatures travel in such
immense numbers and are so ravenous and fierce that nothing alive can withstand
them. Wherever they go they
devour every particle of food they
find, and as their armies are often
half a mile wide and extend for miles and miles, they
create great havoc when on the
march. No obstacle will turn them
aside and they even cross streams
and rivers and if they come to a
house or a village the people are
obliged to leave until the ants have
passed. But the natives don't object
to this very much for the ants eat
every roach, bug, rat, mouse or other
vermin in the houses and leave them clean. Sometimes they
come upon a house in the night and
before the people can escape from the ants they
too are devoured. In many places where the
army ants are numerous the people
sleep in hammocks with rough ropes over which the
ants will not crawl and in such cases the
people sometimes wake up in the
morning and find an army of ants has passed by during the
night and has cleaned the houses of
every edible thing, even the cat or
dog being eaten and nothing but a few bones are left to tell the tale.
A relative of the army ant, and which is found in the same countries, is known as the Umbrella Ant. These little chaps march along in
single file and each one carries a triangular bit of green leaf over his head
like an umbrella. These pieces of leaves are used in building the ants' nests and also for cultivating a species
of fungus on which the ants feed. As
only one kind of leaf is used the
ants are sometimes obliged to travel for several miles to obtain them and the
endless procession of tiny green umbrellas, winding up hill and down dale,
along the well-worn ants' roads is a
very funny sight. Of all the funny habits
of ants, however, the most curious
is that of a little chap from Asia. This ant
builds its home between leaves which it gums together
with sticky silk, and where do you suppose it obtains the
glue-like substance? Not from its own bodies and not from any plant, but from
its own young, for the young ants
spin out the silk for making their cocoons. When their
parents wish to make a nest, two or three ants hold the
edges of the leaves together and another
grasps a young ant in its jaws and rubs the
baby ant's mouth along the seam to
be joined, just as if the little
chap were a mucilage bottle. As soon as the
sticky silk from one baby is used up another
larva is brought and used in the
same way until all the leaves are
glued firmly together and the nest is complete.
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