SEEL JOHN LUBBOCK ON ANTS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3915, 25 May 1877, Page 3

SEEL JOHN LUBBOCK ON ANTS.

Not content with having destroyed some time-honored traditional beliefs on the subject of bees, Sir John Lubbock is now attacking the reputation of an insect which has been almost as frequently held up to the respect and imitation of mankind — the ant. The exhortation, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard," will in future have to be altered into, "Go to the right kind of ant," if at least, the admonition is to have any moral value. For, according to Sir John Lubbock, it would appear that the different species of ants — and there are about 700 of these species altogethei* — " have strongly contrasted moral characteristics. Some are distinguished by bravery, some by cowardice,, some are industrious, some are strikingly idle. Indeed, to sticll an extent i§ idleness carried in one of the species that they are entirely dependent on their slaves." They are too lazy even to feed themselves or clean themselves, and Sir John Lubbock found that to keep them alive it was necessary to put a few slaves for an hour or two every day into the case in which they were confined, in order that their domestic arrangements might be duly attended to. Nor does their supposed intelligence stand the test of inquiry any better than their reputed habits of industry and order. They are said to be very stupid with regard to locality. Sir John Lubbock has fc tried putting a store of food to be reached S by passing over little cardboard bridges, and he found that slightly shifting a bridge baffled them. They never tried to push the bridge, or even to make use of a supply of fine mould put ready to help them fill the gap. They " craned" at a jump of about one-third of an inch, and preferred going a circuit of 18ft, just as a cautious rider to hounds might make a ' detour of several fields to take advantage of a line of gates. It is a mistake, too, to suppose that ants will take care of a distressed friend; Sir John Lubbock " tried covering an ant with mould were many passing and repassing. Not one took any I: notice of him." He was, in fact, "cut," like an embarrassed acquaintance. They Have, however, a singular power of recognising each other, as was tested by placing "thirty intoxicated friends in company with thirty intoxicated strangers together in a nest. The ants were at first much puzzled with the sad spectacle. However, twenty of the friends were taken into the nest, five were thrown into the water, and the others neglected. On the other hand, twenty-four of the thirty strangers were thrown into the water at once, and of the six taken into the nest by mistake, f our were afterwards found to be strangers, and were then taken out and thrown into the water also." There seems further to be no confusion in the mind of the ant 'between drunkenness and apoplexy.