WAYS OF BEES AND ANTS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 28 October 1922, Page 4

WAYS OF BEES AND ANTS.

Bees as barometers afford strange phenomena of nature; but whoever observes these interesting insects finds it easy enough to foretell the kind of weather to be expected. At least that is the opinion of many bee-keepers. Generally, the bees stay at home when rain is in the air: When the sky is simply dark and cloudy these busy workers do not leave their dwellings all at once. A few go out first, as though the queen had sent out messengers to study the state of the atmosphere. The greater number remain on observation until the clouds begin to dissipate, and it is only then that the entire battalion rush out in search of nectar. A bee never goes out in a fog, because it is well aware that dampness and cold are two fearsome redoubtable enemies. We cfo not mean, however, t^nt the bee is a meteorologist in the absolute, sense of the word. Its cleverness consists in never being; taken unawares, for it possesses untiring vigilance. ... ■ As weather prophets, also, ants afford new testimony to the cleverness of these small creatures. When you go out on a summer morning and find the ants busily engaged in clearing up their nests and bringing the sand and bits of earth to the surface, you may be sure that, no matter how-cloudy it is, there will be no rain that day, and the- probabilities are several days of good weather. If, however, j^ou see the ants, about the middle of a "spring or summer afternoon, hurrying back to the nest, and a sentinel trotting out in every direction, looking up stragglers and urging them to get home as soon as they can get there, you may figure on rain that afternoon or night. When the last of the wanderers is found the picket hurries in, and the nest is securely sealed from the inside to keep out the water. Like the" bees, it is seldom that ants are taken by surprise by the approach of a shower. When black snails, on the road you see, * , . Then on the morrow rain will be. Snails are among the best of living barometers. They do not drink, in the ordinary sense of the term, but absorb moisture during the wet weather, directly through the skin, and exude it afterwards. As they are anxious not to have the moisture evaporate too quickly, thus creating a premature thirst, which cannot be conveniently satisfied, they keep, during dryweather, in strict seclusion, moving abroad only during or just before rain. Immediately before a downfall they may be seen climbing the trunks of trees and busily getting in amongst the.leaves. Frogs, particularly those apparently lost in the long grass, who are doubtless overjoyed at their improved prospects of getting a "drink," croak loudly and happily just before a storm. Gnats assemble in clouds under trees, and horses grow restless.