CREATURES THAT WORK.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17633, 9 December 1922, Page 5

CREATURES THAT WORK.

In the report of & lecture recently given by the French entomologist, M. Jean Batelier, it was mentioned that soldier ants with poison-throwers were found in Indo-China. These ants comprise male, female, and neuters. The neuters are soldiers provided with a hollow horn, from which they are able to throw a poisonous fluid on their enemies. Since these ants appear to produce their own poison, just as a snake does its venonir they cannot strictly be called tool-users, yet it is a fact tnat there are ants and other insects, besides a few wild animals, that do actually uae tools. N. Miss Fielde, an American entomologist who has made a special study ofi ants, and keeps them under observation in artificial nests, has noticed that, if a young ant gets dirty, the workers will carry it to the moist sponge which it always kept in the nest, and use the 3ponge to wash it clean. The Peckhams have watched a mason wasp pick up a small pebble and use it as a tool to complete her work of plastering up the mouth of the cell in which she has laid one of her eggs. The great silver beetle which, in point of size, is the second largest among British beetles, but which has become a water-dweller, has a habit so 6?fange that but for the testimony of that careful observer, Mr, John J. Ward, it would be almost beyong Belief. The larva of this beetle occasionally descends to the bottom of the pond in which it lives and selects a pebble which it brings to the surface in its jaws. Under a magnifying glass Mr Ward found that the little stone was being continually revolved, and was forced to the conclusion that the larva was actually using it as a grindstone for the purpose of sharpening its knifelike mandibles. The Chinese, as we know, train cormorants to catch fish. A small tropical crab, the name of which is "Melia Teasellata." carries a sea anemone in each claw and uses them as instruments with which to catch food. ; Then there is the archer fish, which Jnlb the- flies, on which it feeds by a 'iquid bullet—a drop of water fired with extraordinary accuracr from its pointed beak.