THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2209, 2 July 1896, Page 47

THE NATURALIST.

Battle Between Ants and Homed Toads.

Timidity ia a curious characteristic of the horned toad of the plains and mesas of tha Rooky Mountain region. Tbe reptile is not a toad at all, but a kicd of Hzird, tbe common variety of Colorado being known to naturalists as Pnrjnosoma oornutum. Tbe reptile ia popularly called tho "California horned toad," but California hasn't a monopoly of them by any means. They are abundant near Denver, and 'are sometimea seen on the commons within the city's environ?. •

The toads are fond of ants, but in captivity they suffer hunger several days before they will eat in the presence of a human being. They are fond of small black ants, and eat them greedily.

In. a colony captured last summer were several baby toads, with clay-coloured bodisp, long necks, and wiggling tail*. They were extremely fond of riding on the backs of the grown-up toads, and could be seen (it any lime of tbe day engeged in this pleasant diversion of bare-back riding. One of the old fellowe and a "baby" were llbarated upon the prairie. The old cne waited until the youngster had scrambled upon its broad, , rough back, and then scuttled away.

Tbe little toads devcur all kinds of anta and flies, exespfc the big. red &nt», whpse : enormous mounda of Tetrgfanitio sand are objects of curiosity to all strangers in theWest. They were greatly afraid .'of thesa : bold, brisk, . businfsj-like • workers,- flsoing from them or "playing 'possum 1 - 1 ,when,eurrounded by them. > ' One day the self-appointed comnussary.de- 1 partment went to a fruitful red-ant hill and I oaptured a hundred. Returning to tbe toad' corrals the ants were dumped in upon tbe toads without a thought of cjnseqaonceu. ASTB BOUT HOBNBD TOABB. Tho result was decidedly nm-prising. The ante: werceciraged at their rough treatment, and madly attacked "the toad?, biting them in a frenzy. The ants speedily found the vulnerable parts of their advenariea' coats of mail. After a feeble attempt at resistance the toads became panic-strioken and sought safety ia flight. The ants fastened themselves on tbe eyes of tbe toads,, between their toes, and in every tender spot they oould find, and would not: release their grip. The writer dismembered a number of -them in his efforts to free tbe toads, but the vyoe-iike jaws held on when nothing but the head remained. The blade of a penknife had to be used to out away the head. TEBKIFIED BY TnE ANTS. The toads manifested abjeot terror, and never afterwards, no matter how hungry? so long as their captivity lasted, would attempt to swallow a big red-ant. • ■ „ . Young toads are very numerous in' the autumn, as the parents are viviparous, giving birch to seven or eight at a time. Toads,! little and big, are harmless creatures. Thoy are easily caught and tamed, and-may.be-kept for days in a paper bag without either food or . water. They liko to be tickled, twisting and turning in evident delight, like a dog when he is scratched with a stick. They are abjectly afraid of dogs. , Chameleon-like, they assume the colour of the earth on which they live, and can hardly be distinguished when half burled. Tuey are harmless and docile, and are oonfiaed by a string tied to one of the large horns on tho head. LIVING BESEBVOIB6 OF HOSEY. Myrmeoocystos melliger is the very modest name of a queer insect of the Rocky Mountains—the honey-bearing ant. These ants are veritable living reservoirs, animated storehouses of honey, whose sole object in existing is to make others happy and dispense sustenanoe. When the ant designed by Nature to become the depository of sweetness arrives at a distensible age, it crawls upon the ceiling of its cell home, and lends the abdominal part of its body to tbe active workers and honey- gatherers as a receptacle for their product. Drop by drop the sweet treasure is pumped into the animated reservoir, until the abdominal cavity is distended many times its original size, or to about the dimensions of a good-sized currant. - They lodtc like animated currants, with a moving, belegged, and bewhiskered excrescence on one side representing the ant. Their abdomens appear to be distended to the bursting point. . - < Tho active members of each community collect -the honey or grape- sugar from- a speoles of dwarf oak found .in the Rocky Mountains, The ants are thrifty and provident, laying up the extracted sweets for enjoyment and custenence in tirnqs when the outside supply is not available. When called upon to provide the syndicate with nourishment, the "honey bug" regurgitates thj sweets drop by drop.—- New York World*