ANTS

Many scientists have asserted that, next to Man, Ants have the most intelligence of any living creature. Charles Darwin said “the Ant’s brain is one of the most marvelous atoms of matter in the world, perhaps more so than the brain of Man.”

In the opinion of the present writer the anthropoid apes stand next to man in intelligence. But it is quite true that in their social organization and industrial activities Ant “civilization,” in some respects, approximates human “civilization.”

Ants plant and harvest crops, domesticate animals, have a social system which includes working slaves and a military caste, a police force and jails. They perform astonishing feats of engineering. They have efficiency, initiative, and productivity without profiteering. Cooperation, individualism and “patriotism” exist side by side in a real commonwealth. There is a division of labor, but no exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few. All classes share equally in the benefits of their common toil, if we accept the highly specialized warrior ants as rendering military service equivalent to the work of the so-called “slaves.”

Members of the military caste do not work, and are fed by the slave population. But this is due to high specialization rather than to imposition or snobbery. The erstwhile working mandibles of the soldier have gradually become transformed into veritable sabres or bayonets. They could obtain their own food if they so desired, but they have become absolutely dependent on the “working class” for their daily bread.⁠[21] But in return they protect the colony, even at the sacrifice of their own lives.

Each worker Ant finds its own task, and willingly contributes its share. There are no slave-drivers. When one shift of workers has become fatigued, or must stop to partake of food, its place is taken by another shift of equally skillful workers. No time is lost.

If one of the workers becomes encumbered with dirt, its mates come at once to its assistance with “first aid,” cleaning the unfortunate one by brushing and washing. During their mining operations in digging holes and removing stones, an Ant is often injured, whereupon others rush to its aid and carry it to a quieter gallery, where it is by no means neglected.

Above all animals of this planet, Ants know the value of mutual aid, though co-operation is practised among Insects of many kinds.⁠[22]

Forel points out how it is a common practice among many species of Ants for one which possesses an abundance of food in its crop to share it with any of its less fortunate comrades who may apply for it—that is, with any member of the same nest or colony of nests. Approaching each other, they exchange a few signals—movements—of the antennæ, and, says Sir John Lubbock, “if one of them is hungry or thirsty ... it immediately asks for food.” The well-supplied Ant sets apart its mandibles, takes the appropriate position, and regurgitates a drop of half-digested food—a transparent fluid—which is licked up by the hungry Ant. Forel concluded that Ants possess a divided digestive tube, the posterior part being for the special use of the individual, the other, the anterior part, being used chiefly for the benefit of members of the commune. Any Ant which, possessing a crop full of food, refuses to feed a needy comrade, is treated as a “criminal” or outcast. During “war times” such an Ant is treated as a “traitor,” and attacked by its kinsfolk with greater fury than is exhibited toward the foreign enemies of the species. On the other hand, if an Ant has fed an Ant belonging to the enemy species, it will be treated by the kinsfolk of the latter as a friend.⁠[23]

It is well known that the most convincing evidences of intelligence are to be found among the social Insects, where mutual aid is “the order of” every day.

When the able naturalist, Thomas Belt, was superintending a gold mine in Nicaragua, he kept close watch on the animal life about him, large and small. He tells us that he once saw a wide column of Ants attempting to pass along a crumbling, nearly perpendicular slope.

“They would have got very slowly over it, but a number having secured their hold, and reaching to each other, remained stationary, and over them the main column passed.

“Another time they were crossing a watercourse along a small twig, not thicker than a goose-quill. They widened this natural bridge to three times its width by a number of Ants clinging to it and to each other on each side, over which the column passed three or four deep. Except for this expedient they would have had to pass over in single file, and treble the time would have been consumed.

“Can it not be contended that such Insects are able to determine by reasoning powers which is the best way of doing a thing, and that their actions are guided by thought and reflection?”

In 1921, it was discovered that the interior woodwork of the Livestock Exchange Building in Wichita, Kansas, was being tunneled through by Ants. Flypaper was placed across their line of march. The Ants thereupon made sufficient sawdust to cover the sticky flypaper and went on with their “industry.”

Ants domesticate animals, for the same reason that Man does. Among other animals thus domesticated are herds of Plant-lice, or “green-flies,” which are to them the equivalent of our dairy animals. The Ants’ “cow” (Aphid) secretes a “honey-dew.” In order to increase the supply of the sweet excretion the Ants gently stroke the Aphids. When the sap supply for the Aphids fails, the Ants carry their “cows” to new food plants, and when winter comes on both the adult Plant-lice and the eggs are carried out of reach of frost into the Ant caverns and carefully attended until spring, when they are again placed on the swelling plant-buds.

The presence of certain little Crickets, Beetles, and a certain species of Caterpillar in the nests of the Termites and the true Ants, who seem to enjoy their presence, has recently been explained on the ground that the Ants like the odor of these strange “guests.” It has been noted that the Beetles give off more “fragrance” upon being caressed by the Ants. “One species of Ants carries Mites about on the body, feeding them and caring for them, but apparently deriving no benefit from them. Evidently Ants are fond of keeping pets!” (Thomson).

Professor Thomson (in the “Outline of Science,” Vol. II) writes delightedly of the varied activities of Insects, and concerning certain species he says:

“The Tailor-ants, common in warm countries, make a shelter by drawing leaves together, and their co-operative hauling is admirable; their mandibles are their needles, if you like, but they have nothing to sew with: what does each do but take a larva in its mouth so that the silk secreted from the offspring serves as thread for the parents?”

Again: “A common Harvesting-ant of South Europe collects seeds of clover-like plants, lets them begin to sprout so that the tough envelopes are burst, exposes them in the sun so that the germination does not go too far, takes them back underground and chews them into dough, and finally makes this into little biscuits which are dried in the sun and stored for winter use. Many ‘White Ants’ or Termites grow mushrooms in extensive, specially constructed beds of chewed wood, and some of the true Ants show a similar habit.”

That Ants have some means of communicating one with another goes without saying, but our knowledge of Ant language is still very meager, despite the long and patient labors of many myrmecologists. Some of the actions considered to be involved in communication are striking with the antennæ, butting with the head, opening the jaws, beating the ground with the abdomen, and the production of sounds by various kinds of apparatus for stridulation.

“While Ants may not be able to talk about things in their sign language,” says Professor Holmes, “they apparently express their different feelings and inclinations in ways which are intelligible to other Ants. Wasmann has compiled a sort of vocabulary of signs made by the antennæ—a ‘Wörterbuch der Fühlersprache,’ which is about as extensive as Mr. Garner’s languages of Apes. According to the vigor and frequency of the strokes of the antennæ, and the part of the body stroked, the Ant which is addressed may be importuned for food, warned of danger, or induced to co-operate with the communicants in various activities.”

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