DRIVER ANTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 106, 26 June 1911, Page 7

DRIVER ANTS.

There arc certain ants that' show wonderful intelligence, and tlie driver ants not only build boats, but .launch them, too; only those boats are formed of their own bodies. They are called “drivers” because of their ferocity. Nothing can stand before, the attack of these little creatures. Largo pythons have been killed by, them in a single night, while chickens, liz-. ards, and other animals in Western Africa iieo from them in terror. To protect themselves frqm the . heat they erect arches, under which numerous armies of them pass in safety. Sometimes the arch is made oi grass and earth gummed together by some secretion, and again it is formed of the bodies of the larger ants, which hold themselves together by their strong nippers, while the workers pass under them. At certain times ot tiio year freshets overflow the country Inhabited by the drivers, and it is then that these ants go to sea. The rain comes suddenly, and the walls of their houses . are broken in by tlie Hood, • but instead, of coining to the surface in scattered hundreds, and being swept off to out of the ruins rises,, a blapk. ball that rides safely on the water, and drifts away. At the first warning of danger the little creatures rijn,,together and form a solid ball of, ants, the weaker in the centre; often ,this oall is larger, sian a. common, baseball, and in, ..this way they ( float about until tllej'f,lodge, against,'soine tree, upon thp Jnj,inches of which,they are soon safe, sound.' ~,' H