THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2728, 27 June 1906, Page 75

THE NATURALIST.

The Ant's Wonderful Brain. (By Adele M. Fielde, in New York World.)

Tho ant community has in times of peace two dominant interests — tho rearing of tho young and the acquisition of food for all habitants of the colony. The care of the young engages the main strength of all adult ants.

Th© life of the ant begins in an egg which resembles a minute seed pearl. After about 20 days' incubation there issues from the egg a. white larva that must be fed until it reaches the pupa stage, in which, it takes the form of an ant with its limbs tightly folded against its body. The stature, longevity, power of endurance, energy, and capacity of the ant that is to be depend on the quality and quantity of the nourishment supplied to the larva. Adequate nutriment in this stage of ant existence produces a personage _in the ant world — a queen, an Amazonian warrior, or a citizen of ability. Since the general prosperity and future weal of the tribe depend on the feeding of the larvae the adult ants devote themeelves with assiduity to the nourishing of all the growing young in the community. No ant-infant is left to the sole jurisdiction of an ignorant or incompetent antmother. It receives attention from tho ablest and tenderest of the ant-nurses. From the beginning of its life it is treated a«. a treasure and a joy by every member of tho ant community, and whatever its origin, it is regarded aa th© common property and tho immediate concern of all adult ants.

In eating the ants practice- the greatest physiological economy. Nothing but pure sustenance is taken into the body, all innutrient portions of the food being rejected from the mouth.

Having filled their internal crop with nutriment, ants can live many months without eating. Ants often regurgitate food to a hungry comrade. Mutual aid is one of th© secrets of the ascendency of the ants in all countries.

Ants go out foraging to a distance of 40 yards or more from their nests and on their return home they regurgitate food to thoee who have been occupied with nursery work. A small globule of food is returned from the crop to the lip of the tongue and is bestowed upon any comrade wanting it. A hungry ant will crouch and raise its mouth in an appeal for food, and will lap the regurgitated drop with avidity. This free interchange of edibles is greatly to the advantage of the ants, since they thereby secure variety in flavours and diversity in chemical elements- in their foodstuffs. The foraging anta go fh various directions from the nest; one finds nectar, another nut oil, another insect juices, another fruit. Exchange t conduces to appetite ajid to health. No* ant hinders another in the distribution of sustenance. Mankind alone hampers trade in foodstuffs by tariffs, preventing some of th© human family from benefiting for the productions of diverse 'climates and soils.

Three thousand years ago it was said that the ants have no overseer or ruler. The ants appear to have remained content ever since without law-makers or governors. Every ant obeys an inward command to be industrious, thrifty, temperate, courteous to friends, and circumspect toward enemies. "Where every individual is sufficiently self-governed no other government is needed.

In the ant community the queen is an object of devotion, but. she exercises no authority. She possesses a convincing patent of nobility in her extraordinary physical endowments and b«i exceptional services to tho community. SSie has wjngs when slie is hatched, but she retains them only until her return from her wedding journey, when ehe lays them aside and settles" down to purely domestic occupations. She lays count!e69 eggs, and may liyo 15 years or more, assisted by her wingless daughters, the worker ants, in the rearing of more and more ants during successive 6ummers.

Tho malo ants aro comparatively short lived, none having ever been known to survive a second summer. They are always winged and flighty, and are the least intelligent members of the ant community. They aro cleaned and fed by the worker ants, who pick them up bodily and carry them to any destination to which the colony may remove.

In order to understand the behaviour of th« ants we must imagine ourselves to be guided mainly by the sense of smell, and to be in a world where almost everything has distinctive odour. Ants cannot hear and they have very imperfect vision ; but they have a marvellous power of recognising objects by their odour.

The two long "feelers," or "horns," projecting from the ant's faoe are its noses. These- two noses are alike, and the loss of one of them causes the ant no serious inconvenience. Organs situated in the joints farthest from the head discern the odour of the nest and enable every ant to know when it enters its own abode and when it approaches the habitation of some other ilony. The ant also knows its relatives their odour.

Ants of different species have different odours, inherent and hereditary, in them, and besides the odour pertaining to it« species each anfc community, even when of the sam© species, presents a distinctive odour known to all members of that community. Those of the samo community feed, caress, and serve one another, while tho&s of different communities, even when of the same species and variety, give each other battle- on meeting, and often tear each other limb from limb.

No ant community permits an ant bearing a strange odour to becom© a member of their body politic. For the preservation of the standard of odour in th© nest every resident ant will fight to th© death. The ants permit no immigration of adults into their communities, and of all the- denizens of the insect world the ants are the most highly evolved-. Some ants practice agriculture, going out in procession to cut portions of leaves, which they bring home and comminute to make soil on which mushroom spores fall and sprout, to be tended, trimmed down, and eaten by the ants. Another species has members who servo as both door and doorkeeper in the ant nest. These doorkeepers have enormous flat foreheads, which shey press against the aperture used as exit and entrance to the nest. When an enemy comes tho doorkeeper stands fast and gives no admission, but when an inmate returns and taps on the- door the doorkeeper withdraws and permits entrance. In Asia there aro ants that co-operate in drawing together th© edges of a large leaf while another ant holds up a larva and moves it to and fro so that it may fasten the leaf edges together with the silk spun from its mouth, thus making a snug abode for th© ants.

How Tisrers Kill their Prey. — Always Make Attack Upon the Flank of an Animal. —

I have taken considerable trouble to find out how tigers kill large gam© (writes an assistant controller of forests at Perah to the London Field). Some time ago I was asked to come and see a full-grown bullock that had been killed by a tiger. On examining it I found tho animal had its neck broken and there- were claw marks on the nose and shoulder, but nowhere else. There wns no doubt that the tiger had jumped a,t the bull and landed on the shoulder, and when the bull turned his head to gore the tiger he must have put hie claw out and with a sudden jerk broken the neck.

On another occasion I went to see a young buffalo which had been killed by a tiger, and found the same "thing had happened. There were similar marks on the nose and also on the near shoulder, which clearly indicated that this animal ha# been killed in the same way. Malays who have actually seen a tiger killing a buffalo told m© they saw the same tiling happen, also that in dragging off a heavy carcase such as buffalo or bull he gets most of tho weight across his shoulder. This must be fairly correct, as I have often followed a kill, and the marks left indicated that only a portion of the animal was trailing along tho ground. I have known a full-grown bull which ten men could not move dragged for £\vo miles .by a tiger in heavy jungle, where roots of trees -and swamp had to te gone through In no case have I eeea the pug marks facing the wrong way except when, stopping to feed, which proves he must carry a portion of the animal over his shoulder.

The old idea of a tiger killing large game l>y a blow from hi 3 paw is nonsense ; besides, in this country a tiger never faces hie prey, but attacks him on the flank, unless charged. Another curious fact that may seeni very like a fairy tale is that a tiger dees not seem to mind a small lamp being tied over a kill about 10ft high, but will com© and feed. I have known three occasions when this has been tried, and each time a tiger has com© to feed upon the carcase.