The Powers of the Ant

New Zealand Tablet, 27 September 1906, Page 33

The Powers of the Ant

Because of his extraordinary feats of strength, the ant may well 'be styled the Samson of the insect world. In> 'handling the heavy bodies of other insects tha/t it majkes its prey the ant shows wonderful strength. One of these little creatures, three-eighths of an inch long, can kill and drag away the heavy bodies of caterpillars, spiders, and maggots. A nest of ants has been known to destroy twenty-eight caterpillars and grasshoppers a minute— nearly 150U an hour. Several harvesting ants of the tiniest species known one day discovered two large cockroaches, two inches long and one-half inch wide, on a shelf four feet from the floor. Killing their prey, the ants drew the bodies along the rough board for more than two feet, dropped them to the ground, dragged them over a long stretch of rough rubble, and passed them between two slabs of wood into the nest, all in the short space of one half-hour. Recently the ant has been trained to lift coin 500 times its weight or to drag a miniature silver coach 1300 times its weight ; but these feats are of small moment compared to its incessant burden-bearing capacity -during a short span of life. Perhaps its athletic 'development is i largely due to the exemplary life and correct habits of the insect. In the first place, it is absolutely cleanly, not only as regards its surroundings, but its food. It manifests up-to-date ideas upon the subject of sanitation. No refuse is allowed to remain near the dwellings ; drainage and ventilation are always good. "When an ant is moving on its forays, a stream of water is not permitted to interfere with progress. In overcoming this difficulty, the ant employs its strength no less than its intelligence. Frequently South American military ants, in tbeir forays, seek trees that overhang streams and cross on them. If no such bridge is to be found, they repair to a sandy beach and proceed to make a ferry. Each ant pulls a piece of dry wood, much larger than itself,- into the water, mounts it, and is pushed by rows of comrades out into the stream. The pieces of wood are held together by the insects, until, in a short time, the stream is covered with a long line of linked ferryboats. When this line becomes unwieldy, those nearest the .opposite shore break the connecting links and land, while the ants on the starting side work away at enlarging the ferry till all are across.