MARVELS OF AN ANT CITY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3333, 9 August 1926, Page 2

MARVELS OF AN ANT CITY.

Astonishing proofs of the intelligence of the ant—the brainiest creature existence, considering its size —were given by Mr F. \V. Fitzsimons, k.Z.S. director of the museum at Port Elizabeth, South Airica, in a lecture to the members of the Eastern Province Naturalists’ Society. Ants discovered ages ago, Ivlr Fitzsimons said, that if twenty million inhabitants were to live harmoniously in one city it was impossible .for all of them to breed. Young feraals. with the exception of from three to live in each city, were therefore reared on special foods which made thorn grow up immature. There were thus three kinds of ants —the queens, or fertile females; the workers; which were the. immature females, and the males. The most intelligent were the oldest females. The males had very little brain,-and did nothing but cat and loaf. The organisation of the city was perfect, cacb ■ant toding at her own particular mirk until she needed a rest. A nurse ant would then massage her until she recovered sufficiently to resume her work. Ant nurseries were specially wannedchambers where eggs from the queenwere carefully tended by nurses until a. sort of grub hatched out. This grid; became the chrysalis from which Inter on an ant emerged. Ants, Air Fitzsimons continued, possessed granaries, dairies, playrooms and rooms in which other insects wenkept as pets. A kind of milk for then infants was obtained from certain leal insects. An underground insect w also kept as a cow. Mr Fitzsimons declared that sum.means of communication resembling wireless enabled ants to send in a m >- meat, over about twenty miles of tunnelling, the news of an enemy’s iinproaeh to their city. An ants’ parliament was composed of a few of the old women of, the city, who, when any serious question arose, were kept captive by a ring of .soldiers until they had decided the matter. Amazon ants had arrived at a stag" when the men looked after the babies while the women did the figdding. An army of Amazon ants might mini I a million or a hundred million. Xu obstacle ever baulked! it in its advance. If a- stream was .encountered, the engineers tunnelled below its or made a bridge of their bodies —in which' ca.ethousands perished. These small insects, Mr Fitv.snioux added, Jed higher lives than human i>cings, and were far in advance of i hem in wisdom. The strike problem was solved by the unity of purpose in their labors and the strong feeling of brotherhood developed in.them.