we aye Wed = Ah Ribbed Roh. NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN POPULAR STUDIES OF ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS BY HENRY CHRISTOPHER MCCOOK AUTHOR OF ‘* AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNING WORK”’ ‘*THE AGRICULTURAL ANT OF TEXAS”’ ““ TENANTS OF AN OLD FARM”’ Etc. ETc ILLUSTRATED FROM NATURE HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON 1907 113965 Copyright, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, by HarrPer & BROTHERS. All rights reserved. Published March, 1907. TO ELEANOR WHOSE LOVING SYMPATHY AND CARE, NEVER WEARYING, HAVE MADE IT POSSIBLE TO PREPARE THESE STUDIES FOR THE PRESS CONTENTS Tae Royat Moruer or ANTS. ......s 2 ANT QUEENS AND THE FOUNDATION OF FORMICARIES 16 Inskct HERDS AND HERDERS . .. .. .. . 40 THe DaIntTINEss OF ANTS—ToImLeT Hapits . .. 53 KIDNAPPING ANTS AND THEIR SLAVES ...... 68 NGHICHETURATACANTS) sik. le a 6, piel erie ek bg ey ARO Honery ANTS OF THE GARDEN-OF-THE-GODS .. . 96 A Guinp or CARPENTER ANTS. ...... . L12 FEIN See mr eB ac, <5! Se, oy, th ae ee ae mee TINGING) WiITDtbRES: 2 6 6 2, %<) oe, oer 2 148 BURROWING AND CARPENTER BEES ..... . 161 AMRONAUTICOSPIDERS. 2). s -s “s « « © 3 o « 182 PPATEORING CANTMALS! cs, nos ef al he) ese 8 te eT Rak SELONTRESS! WASPS =. . ' 93 « @ «eae. @ SEZ Tur STRANGE CYCLE OF THE CICADA .... . 228 ORANGE OARGIORE -.-8 5. <0 al cey ~s: 2. een es ten 2d WAT CR-STHEDERSE "05 lta ss co 6 AB eine “espera 200) THe Net-Maxinc Cappis Worm ....... 271 NSHCTS: AWD CIVITAZATION 3 “3 a 4 sw es 287 BENEFICIAL AND INJuRIOUS INSECTS ... . . 300 I aes EN ig) ele hes So eR ES ee a wa lesar ch hee es ILLUSTRATIONS HmENE GC. MCCOOK: 5 7.6 « « « « 6 6 « «| Mrontisnece PLAYGROUND OF YOUNG ANT QUEENS. . . . +. e« « « e A QUEEN ANT AND HER CIRCLE OF ATTENDANTS . .... A WANDERING QUEEN FORCED HOME BY HER COURTIERS. . MAB RAG GH OR CANTS “ «= s © i ‘a © © a») e- “ees SURFACE MOUNDS OF A MASON ANT (LASIUS) 2). shee as aera Aveo Aste EN: SUEDE PARI 5 6 6. ve, «6 Se) (se felt Bale lo tthemns A NEST OF MOUND-MAKING ANTS OF THE ALLEGHANIES te A MARRIAGE FLIGHT OF WINGED CARPENTER ANTS . .. . ANTS COLLECTING HONEYDEW FROM AN APHID HERD .. . PORTIONTON AN ANTS'=NEST . «5 1s. 1s é 'e « oe @ A WORKER ANT DRAWING A RATION OF HONEYDEW FROM A INU ELOHM Ope Galy Ge CO SIGN WC Cie iment te et He amen) ane Omer a ANTS’-NEST UNDERNEATH A FLAT STONE ania ea) Sacnue er) se AN EMMET SHEPHERDESS CARRYING ONE OF HER APHID FLOCK PART OF AN ANT’S FORE LEG, SHOWING ITS TOILET APPARATUS TOME ACCESSORINS OF “ANTS «. « « © «© » wots ‘e « « COMBING THE HEAD AND THE BACK HAIR . ... «6 « « ODD TOILET ATTITUDES ep 0, ake Oh er le~ Jed io is) wee a P eee ANTS GIVING A FRIENDLY TONGUE BRUSH TO THEIR FELLOWS CAC ROBA LLG BATH, je ive! is .« 6 @ 6. 6s s «, 6) 4) 1s COMEINGs THE (ANTENNAD “6.5 2 © © © -«@ (6; "6 'e «) 67 « A SLAVE-MAKER RETURNING FROM A RAID CARRYING AN ANTLING, AND WITH A SEVERED HEAD CLINGING TO A LEG A SLAVE-MAKERS’ RAID—FIGHTING ON THE OUTSKIRTS ... SLAVE-MAKERS, WITH THEIR PLUNDER, LEAVING A SACKED CITY SCENE IN A HARVEST-FIELD—ANTS HARVESTING BUFFALO- ASS Tomine Mss ‘si edn tve oof give, tek at ok eel "ep sed ve A DISK COVERED WITH A CROP OF ANT-RICE . . 2... e« e« HORIZONTAL SECTION OF AN AGRICULTURAL ANT’S NEST . . CROSS-SECTION THROUGH AN AGRICULTURAL ANT’S NEST . . EXAMPLES OF ABRADED DENTITION OF THE MANDIBLES OF AG- AATEC ALP AN Lis ticle Lely vethian i wel ee.” dha), 6, he PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS A DISH OF HONEY ANTS AS SERVED AT MEXICAN WEDDING BANQUETS “shy 0082 a tel se Saat a vole dot at eee hee HONEY ANTS ASSEMBLED UPON THE ROUGH ROOF OF A VAULTED GHA MBEIR 511)! ol Wiley efoto Sieh ean re Veet RCI pm e c ca NIGHT-WORKERS GATHERING HONEY FROM OAK-GALLS . .. HONEY-ANT WORKERS OBTAINING HONEY FROM A HONEY- BHAR DR 6,09. alps cgnee ieee ee keene cae) ean WORKER HONEY ANTS DRAWING HONEY-BEARERS INTO A GAL- LERY AND UP A PERPENDICULAR SURFACE DETAIL OF THE ABDOMEN OF A HONEY-BEARER . ... . GRADUAL EXPANSION, FROM A TO C, OF THE CROP IN A HONEY AND 005.45 (te ain ee oy eed aime cae eager cn ol ese CARPENTER ANTS REMOVING THE WOOD PELLETS CUT FROM A TRB ia! ol faed Sea Susi bios Cea Ge ete te Ghee Pe ne ke ee CARPENTER ANTS WORKING IN THE CORNER BEAM OF A FLOUR- 1.0 1h Oa a MO PE AN PL eH le aA Nala Nr, ORM sea Mave Ho A CARPENTER ANT DUMPING A PELLET OF WOOD INTO A CITY GUPDBR S50 thee ep h sue mate aaron Os nen tae anton SECTIONAL VIEW OF THE INTERIOR GALLERIES, AND ROOM OF A GAR PUNTER: ANT SiNIMSE lh iit na vay Oe ere seated Mee tae PROJECTING ROOM OVER A HALL: A BAY-WINDOW ... . VIEW OF THE CEILING OF ROOF OF A CARPENTER ANT’S NEST IMAGO FORMS OF ANT-LION (a/YRMELEON IMMACULATUS). . . ANT-LION LARVA CAPTURING AW ANT. 1.02) .5). . cous ‘A BOMBARDMENT). ha. 4a. cant) MYNOe Mees We omer nity Uvem ike Suvevt Monae COCOON AND LARVA OF ANT-LION . , . . . . .. « « LEAF-CUTTER BEE (M£GACHILE MENDICA) AT WORK UPON A ROSE- BUSH Orihe. = ESC Soule ah Gly geniheend Sits tap taiit Ace eS Wrrekn con We gis ave BROODING NEST OF LEAF-CUTTER BEE ........ MALE OF HALICTUS PRUINOSUS ADMITTING THE FEMALE TO THE GUARDED ‘BURROW.< “40 sonatas en eee Bie i ORS DIAGRAM OF THE NESTING BURROW OF HALICTUS PRUINOSUS, A SOLITARY BEB or ten). oc alee can tae nage yo stone et tebe MALE HALICTUS BEE GUARDING HIS BURROW AGAINST PHORA CARA, ASP ARASITICURE Vig ae acti Sie ca neta nem MUD-PELLET CELLS OF A MASON BEE (OSMIA) BUILT IN A STONE- 1105.0 et a ee ite lait | SRO Glick, Wok tow Oegid” ab SECTION OF A WILD-BEE-TREE WITH HONEYCOMB CLINGING TO THE INTERIOR). 3) 92-0 adler tee es) Lie ener mee venice CAVE NESTS AND CELLS OF THE BUMBLEBEE (s0MBUS VIRGINICA) BURROW AND BROODING-CELLS OF A BURROWING BEE (cozzz. TUS TNHQOUALIS) | A VIREO’S NEST, WOVEN AND BOUND WITH GATHERED SPIDER SOLE She EO eget pe as pe ReSearAte BIRD AND (TTS: NEST... gk. eye ee ws LEAF-WOVEN TENT OF A SPIDER (£PEIRA TRIFOLIUM) . . . .« AN ORBWEAVING SPIDER’S NESTING-TENT OF FERN-LEAVES WUE BLO CRUEL SuMeeer hats Nes Gh > s- (y's bia: oe y shaman eet te NESTING-TENT OF A SPIDER ON LAUREL-LEAVES . ... . A BABY SPIDER’S SILKEN TENT AND CRADLE ..... . THE SILK-WOVEN HOME AND COCOON NEST OF A SALTIGRADE SUELO TORI | nn» Se celeteal Py hs MS ak ee OP eae eee ee i talc A COMMUNITY OF SOCIAL SPIDERS IN THEIR SILK-BOUND NEST OF LEAVES. AFTER M. EUGENE SIMON. ..... -« EGG-CELLS OF BLUE MUD-DAUBER WASP (CHALYBION C#RULEUM) BLUE MUD-DAUBER WASP CARRYING OFF AN ORBWEAVING SPUR MROM! IPS SWASB, oe: VS fer | ees el) fat ler st se PIPES-OF-PAN CLAY CELLS OF MUD-DAUBER WASP OCCUPIED BY AGU MSU VUAS Dee, Crimi rer Salis hati og Ca Nic at ot wok anlar es WOOD-PULP NEST OF VESPA MACULATA, OUR COMMON HORNET A TRAP-DOOR SPIDER (CZENIZA CALIFORNICA) PURSUED BY A TARANTULA-KILLER (PEPSIS FORMOSA). . . . ... « I AND 3. CALIFORNIA TRAP-DOOR SPIDER’S NEST (c7TEWIzA CALI- FORNICA). — 2. TURRET TRAP-DOOR NEST (DozIcHosc4PTUS LATASTH]). AFTER M. EUGENE SIMON ...... . THE FOUR-SPOTTED ELIS DRAGGING LYCOSA TIGRINA FROM ITS PU ic et sl ve) cist hie! pri new ol! 6” |e) ta’ yell en pel ket cer xe THE SEVENTEEN-YEAR CICADA AND ITS PUPA-CASE ... . ASS OUD Ss EN, LDN TIRICA TION << js 2/ ©. a @ «6 “© © «© CICADA CITY OF MUD HUTS, OR TURRETS ... «6 e e« PoC LC ALTA EL ORMMEL LS Dee be | len 6; eves ve te! fe) of) ae “lei, 16) 6 SECTIONAL VIEW OF CICADA HUT AND BURROW .... . EGG-TRENCHES IN TWIGS, MADE BY FEMALE CICADA aR hs ae FORMS OF THE CICADA ISSUING FROM THE PUPA-CASE . . . ix PAGE 168 174 176 178 184 187 190 192 195 198 199 200 201 203 204 206 - 208 210 213 215 217 219 221 224 226 229 231 233 235 236 238 239 ILLUSTRATIONS ORBWEB OF ORANGE ARGIOPE . . « « e& © «© «@ © eo eo WEAVING THE ZIGZAG OR SPIRAL STAIR . « «© © «© «© ec ew ARGIOPE SWATHING HER VICTIM . .«. ee e e © ce e e A SECTION OF A DEW-LADEN ORBWEB . . « « « « « « ARGIOPE. WEAVING THE COCOON 5 .s, ss aie e) see EGG-COCOON OF ORANGE ARGIOPE ... . « »« © « « « » DIAGRAMATIC VIEW OF THE LOCATION OF THE SPINNING ORGANS IN (ARGIOPE AURANTIUM) ORANGE ARGIOPE . . . COCOON AND DEATH FASHION OF ARGIOPE .~. . 2. «© « «© e« A WATER-STRIDER eet ERO aC aM OA ee OMMOF TOME OM ees 6 CASE-MAKING CADDIS WORMS oP her ee ee an) dose. cat ore ene LARVAL CAIRNS OR DOMICILES OF NET-MAKING CADDIS WORM NET-MAKING CADDIS FLY, IMAGO, LARVA, AND HOOK .. . NET-MAKING CADDIS WORM BUILDING ITS UNDER-WATER CAIRN PUPAL CASE OF A NET-MAKING CADDIS WORM, OPENED TO SHOW DEAD PUPA: WITHIN ashe i.e ert elites ted ns. [ol oh eum wunie A MINIATURE FISHING-LODGE an ieht eee he )e peek Tish heb etirs CAIRN OF NET-MAKING CADDIS WORM, SHOWING ITS NET AND SILKEN LUBE ic 7 6.) et omy sm 0 cole ye tele sen PAGE 242 244 247 249 251 253 255 257 262 272 274 275 278 280 283 285 PREFACE HIS book is an outgrowth from a series of nature articles printed in Harper's Magazine during the last four years. They were so well received that the writer was asked to put them into form for permanent publication. For the most part, the papers deal with — popular phases of insect and aranead life, and their themes are drawn chiefly from the author’s own special- ties, ants and spiders. Outside of these, however, the products of some original studies have been given, as with certain wild bees, with water-striders, caddis-flies, wasps, and ant-lions. A number of new chapters have been added. The magazine articles have been revised, enlarged by new material, and otherwise changed, it is hoped for the better. Parts of three of the new chapters have been taken from articles printed in the Forward, of Phila- delphia, and for such use thanks are due the editor and publishers. Free use has been made of such work of other ento- mologists as served the writer’s purpose, knowing that naturalists are ever best pleased when their contribu- tions to the knowledge of nature are best known. But as far as desirable in a work of this sort, credit has been given for published observations not original with the author. xi PREFACE From one view-point— yes, from two— Nature’s Craftsmen may be called a popular book. It is as free as it can well be made from embarrassing technical terms, although like all other objects the creatures whose history is here given have and must have names, which must be learned, even as our own. Moreover, as the author believes that science need not be and should not be divorced from literature, he has tried to write his histories in attractive and agreeable style. Further, the book may be called “popular” in that it deals with phases of natural life that come most easily into common thought and interest. Otherwise the writer has aimed to make Nature’s Craftsmen a thor- oughly scientific study within its chosen field. That it will be found wholly free from errors is too much to hope. But the writer may claim that he has given due care to make his work accurate, and within its limits of good authority. These pages represent many years spent in sundry parts of our continent in delightful contact with our little brothers and sisters of the Insect -World. If some measure of the author’s pleasure and advantage in field- work shall come to his readers, he will be well content. And if hereby any shall be won to study in His works the Author of all, he will have reached his highest aim. Brooxkcamp, DEVON, PENNSYLVANIA, April, a.p. 1906. PART FIRST STUDIES OF ANT LIFE NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN CHAPTER I THE ROYAL MOTHER OF ANTS “17 HAT kind of ants are flying ants?” This ques- tion is often asked by persons who fancy that there is a distinct species of ants that have wings. Most known ants are “flying ants” in their ancestral origin. The males and females are born with wings, which the males keep until death, and the females soon lose. In- deed, the females deliberately unwing themselves by di- vers contortions of the body, strokes of the feet, twist- ing of the wings, and rubbing against near-by objects. That nature-gift which we call instinct, that teaches wasps and bees to keep their wings, which they will need in their mode of life, prompts the mother-ant to put off her wings as useless appendages in her under- ground and flightless career." A complete formicary contains one or more fertile queens, workers of two or more castes, and young males and females. The last are sometimes called “virgin queens,” for they are the predestined royal mothers of ants. Both sexes are carefully attended by workers of 4 Some ant genera, however, are truly apterous, as Hciton, Dory- lus, Leptogenys, and Tomognathus. 2 3 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN the community, who feed them just as they do the baby ants or larve. They remain within the home nest until nature, with vigilant concern to perpetuate the race, prompts to the swarming or “marriage flight.” Usually the workers assist nature. One may see males and females being driven out of the nest and from the sur- rounding herbage by squads of workers, who pinch them with their jaws, and otherwise give them notice that their room is held to be better than their company. During their nonage these winged members of the formicary lead a lazy and merry life. While studying the habits of the Agricultural ant of Texas, the author saw some of them enjoying an outing upon the large circular pavement or plaza which surrounded the cen- tral gates of an immense formicary. Their visits to the outer air were not frequent; but they were plainly made for exercise and the benefit of the sunshine. One female was seen swinging, with evident gusto, upon a grass- stalk, not unlike a youth on a turning-bar. On another plaza a bunch of young queens were having a joint outing, a sort of picnic which they heartily enjoyed. A large pebble near the gate was the chief sporting-ground. This they would ascend, and facing the wind, would sit erect upon their hind legs, taking as veritable a rampant posture as any heraldist could wish. Several of the queenlings would climb up the stone at one time; and then ensued a playful passage at arms for position. They pinched one another with their man- dibles and chased one another from favorite spots. One was reminded of a group of boys sparring for place upon a big rock, or a bevy of girls in a game of “tag.” So universal and natural is the impulse to play among the young of all living creatures, from an ant to man. 4 THE ROYAL MOTHER OF ANTS Thus the brief youth of the winged dependents of the formicary is passed (as far as now appears) in idleness and pleasure. But at length the time comes when they must go forth from their native city, to return no more. It would seem a sharp change and a most radical one; but nature has prepared the adventurers for it. Com- monly the marriage flight occurs during the summer or early autumn. On a warm evening of a September day one may see multitudes of newly exiled male and female ants fluttering above the surface of the earth, the mass rising and falling as the members weave to and fro as in the mazes of a dance. Again, solitary winged females may be seen rising from the foliage surrounding an open formicary or from near-by plants, and flying away until lost to sight, or until they drop to the ground, where they may locate their “claim” for a new city. Strange stories have been written and told of the immense numbers that escape in the swarming season from myriads of ant-hills, darkening the air, and cover- ing several inches thick the surface of rivers and lakes, and even of the sea. Some accounts may be exaggerated ; but enough facts are known, of which there is no doubt at all, to justify belief of most of them. The author has seen a swarm so vast as to shade the earth like a light cloud, and details of far larger swarms will be given in the next chapter. When one considers that these myriads of creatures are, up to this point, supported wholly by the labor of the workers; and that in addi- tion thereto the care and nurture of the numerous larve; the excavating of galleries and rooms for the extension of the community; defensive and sentinel duty, and foraging for supplies, all are wrought by the same class —he will quite unite with Solomon in holding up the 5 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN ant as a model of industry. But he who would find an ideal commonwealth, wherein are no non-producing classes and individuals, and where all work for the com- munity, must go elsewhere than to an ant-hill. After the marriage flight, the males soon perish. Most of them fall victims to birds and insects of various sorts; but such as escape these enemies hide under stones, or in hollows of the ground, or underneath shrub- bery, and, being unable to provide for themselves, soon die. Their mandibles, which are the implements of war and industry among emmet tribes, are usually rounded, feeble, and unsuited for active service. It seems a cruel transition, from being communal favorites and objects of unceasing care, to a state of exile and abandonment to death. It is another form of that harsh dealing with the useless members of society that one sees among their hymenopterous cousins, the bees. But the active savagery of the beehive appears in the formicary as neglect. The result in each case is the same; and perhaps the short, sharp method of the bees with their drones is the more merciful of the two. Nature, as operative in these vital atoms, having se- cured the perpetuation of the species, casts aside the individual when the one function for which he was pro- vided has been performed. It is another example of Tennyson’s large deduction: *“So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life.” Every female and worker is furnished with two strong, movable jaws, or mandibles, hollowed inside like the palm of a hand and with toothed edges. With these they gather food, defend themselves against foes, open 6 fae ROYAL MOTHER OF ANTS out homes in wood, as do the carpenter ants, or exca- vate galleries underneath the earth’s surface and rear mounds upon it, as do the mason ants. As soon as the home-flitting is over, they settle upon the ground or on a tree, and first of all begin to “undress.”’” They know— although one can only wonder how—that their wings can be of no use in the new life before them, while burrowing in the ground or tunnelling in the fibres of wood. There- fore, they rid themselves of those gauzy encumbrances. This act of unwinging, or dealation accomplished, the queen—for she now may be truly ranked as a founder PLAYGROUND OF YOUNG ANT QUEENS Circular disk, or plaza, above the formicary of the Agricultural ant of Texas, eleven feet in diameter, and from it roads di- verge to facilitate foraging, harvesting, etc. is NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN of a house, although without a following—-makes for herself a nest in a small cave in the ground or in a slight hollow in a tree. Therein she lays several eggs, from which a small brood of worker-ants is hatched, since the needs of the formicary first require workers. The eggs which produce males are not hatched until later. Wheth- er, as in the case of bees, ants are able to develop queens from ordinary worker larvee by special food and treat- ment is not positively known, but is hardly probable. Lord Avebury has shown that eggs are occasionally dropped by workers, who are really undeveloped females, and which always produce males. While the first brood is maturing, the queen attends to all domestic duties. She is a fair type of the primi- tive human princess. She cleans up the house; digs out a new room for a nursery, if need be; washes and cleanses with her tongue her infant progeny; feeds them in the way common among ants, by regurgitation, draw- ing there for upon her own reserve of stored substance; and, in short, nurses and nourishes them until they are full-grown ants. Then they are set to work for themselves. Their first duty is to assist in nursing their younger brothers and sisters. They take to this without instruction and while they are yet callow antlings. As they become a little toughened and hardened, they are pushed out-of-doors to help the queen mother gather food. By-and-by they are strong enough to assist in house-building, and begin digging out new galleries and rooms. Thus the work goes on and enlarges as the colony grows. All this time the queen continues to lay eggs. There is need for an immense number, for there is great loss of life in an ordinary ant-hill. The daily exigencies of 8 THE ROYAL MOTHER OF ANTS service among these little creatures are extremely severe. All sorts of enemies lurk in the way to devour them. The feet of passing beasts and human beings crush multitudes. These frequent losses have to be made up by the fertility of the royal mother; and ere long it becomes necessary for her to devote herself wholly to increasing the colony. Foraging for supplies is abandoned. House- hold work, domestic service, nursery duty, are gradually given up, and the workers of the growing community take those tasks upon themselves. The queen is re- stricted to the function of motherhood. Therein lies her supreme claim to sovereignty. This is a typical case of the course of founding an ant community; although herein also nature asserts her love of variation. In some cases, at least, especially in large communities, the workers seize the fertilized young queens and conduct them into the nest, where they are adopted, assigned quarters, and add their quota to the communal forces. The ant queen’s subjection to her subjects is not reached without resistance on the part of her emmet majesty. But resistance is useless, and she becomes in the end subject to the powerful house which she has reared around her. She is confined closely to the interior of the formicary, and wherever she goes, through cham- bers and halls, is attended by a circle of workers known as “courtiers” —a name that has a large and dignified sound. But the courtiers are simply a body-guard; and their chief office is to restrain the liberty of their sover- eign within the bounds prescribed by the communal needs, and to look after the eggs when they are dropped. Almost necessarily this phase of ant life must be observed NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN in artificial formicaries alone. Therein one may watch the courtiers surrounding the queen in a circle, attending her during all her movements. The circle never ceases to close around her as she passes from place to place. A QUEEN ANT AND HER CIRCLE OF ATTENDANTS Drawn from a sketch made from a scene in an artificial ant nest Sometimes the queen, falling into a fit of stubbornness, will attempt a course different from that which her court prescribes. Then one attendant gently nips a leg and gives it a little push; another closes the mandibles upon the bedy and gives it a slight pinch; a third tenderly seizes a quivering antenna and draws it to this side or that. The whole body-guard meanwhile closes around the queen, and by pushing her and obstructing her path diverts her course, or quite turns her around, her huge body, several times as large as a worker’s, moving some- times readily, sometimes with sullen resistance. Thus 10 THE ROYAL MOTHER OF ANTS at last the courtiers carry their point. Perhaps this sort of courtier-nagging is not unknown in the palaces of human sovereigns. Once a queen escaped from the surface-gate of one of my formicaries. Not a courtier was in sight. She was free! Off she ran, as though intending to have a good romp and enjoy her freedom. But she had reckoned without her host, for she had gone but a little way when her body-guard pursued and seized her, somewhat rough- ly, and immediately began to pull her backward towards the gate. She resisted sturdily, but at last gave way, and was drawn down the opening into the royal domicile. Poor queen! Certes, there are some drawbacks to the dignities that hedge about an emmet throne. The courtiers maintain their circular sentry while the queen is laying eggs. When they are laid, a worker catches up the tiny white pellets and pulls them to one side. Then they are borne away into the nurseries, wherein all eggs are set aside, and watched and cared for by the workers who have the special charge of that department. From what has been written it appears that the name “queen,” as commonly applied by entomologists and others to the fertile female of hymenopterous insects, such as bees, wasps, and ants, is misleading to the gen- eral reader. The functions of the ant queen seem to be limited to those above described—namely, first, the mason or carpenter-work and other labors necessary to establish the original nucleus of a formicary; and, sub- sequently, the increase of the colony by depositing eggs. There is really no headship analogous to that which the word “queen” expresses among men. 11 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN The entire administration of the community appears to be in the hands of the workers. All changes, such as emigration to a new nest, or wars of defence and offence, or the extension of the public works, are directed by them. These movements appear at times to be spon- taneous in an entire community, and the reasons for them are often beyond human ken; but sometimes they plainly lie in special annoyance, inconvenience, danger, or necessity. Every ant seems to be a law unto itself, and preserves independence of action in all things. The only sover- eignty which it recognizes is that of personal influence and example, which create a potent social atmosphere or environment. When this becomes effective upon the individual worker, it is urged forward in the line of labor, apparently wholly independent of other rule or restraint than that which its task imposes. In fact, the proverb which, many centuries ago, described the wise workers of the ant-hill as “having no guide, overseer, or ruler,” has been proved by modern myrmecologists to be liter- ally true. It would be more appropriate, therefore, to speak of an ant community as a pure democracy than an absolute monarchy. The queen is simply the mother of the home; the source of all life and prosperity, because of her power to produce offspring. Her life is guarded and regu- lated by a view single to the interests of the com- munity, and, as far as can be seen, not at all with regard to the dignity and office of the royal mother herself. How long may an ant queen live? In their natural habitat some queens doubtless have short lives; but by 12 o A WANDERING QUEEN FORCED HOME BY HER COURTIERS Courtiers dragging an ant queen back to her quarters NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN reason of the protection afforded them, and the seclusion enforced by the workers, they probably live much longer than other members of the community. Within artifi- cial surroundings they attain a comparatively long life. The oldest emmet queen known to science was one pre- served under the care of Lord Avebury, better known as Sir John Lubbock. In the winter of 1881, during a visit to this distinguished naturalist at his country- seat, High Elms, Kent, the author for the first time saw this venerable sovereign, living in the ingenious artificial formicary which had been prepared for her. She was then in the prime of life, as it afterwards appeared, being seven years old. In the summer of 1887 Sir John was again visited, this time at his town house in London. After greetings he was asked about his royal pet. “T have sad news to tell you,” he answered. “What? Is the queen dead?” “She died only yesterday. I have not had the heart to tell the news as yet even to my wife.” Having offered my hearty condolence, I asked to see the dead queen. Sir John led the way to the room where his artificial nests were kept. The glass case which contained the special formicary in which the old ant had lived was opened up. Lying in one of the larger open spaces or rooms was the dead queen. She was sur- rounded by a crowd of workers, who were tenderly lick- ing her, touching her with their antennz, and making other demonstrations as if soliciting her attention, or desiring to wake her out of sleep. Poor, dumb, loving, faithful creatures! There was no response. Their queen mother lay motionless beneath their demonstra- tions. 14 THE ROYAL MOTHER OF ANTS “They do not appear to have discovered that she is really dead,’ remarked Sir John. Afterwards he wrote me of another queen which died at the age of fourteen years. The ants dragged her body about with them when they moved, until it fell to pieces. CHAPTER II ANT QUEENS AND THE FOUNDATION OF FORMICARIES N the former chapter the reader has been given a general view of the life of a queen ant. The subject is of such wide interest, and bears so closely upon the whole economy of ants, that it will now be taken up more in detail, especially with a view to the manner of founding a community. Let us begin the history at the point where the young adult females or virgin queens await in their native formicaries the period at which their real life-function is about to begin. Heretofore they and their winged male associates have been beneficiaries in the home nest, wholly dependent upon the workers for food, and for other attentions. They can preen the soft hairs and bristles that clothe their bodies, and otherwise attend to their personal toilet. But they are still subject to the watch and discipline of the worker castes, who are the emmetonian soldiers, policemen, builders, purveyors, nurses, and laborers. They have an eye even to their constitutional exercise ; for Huber has told us of certain carpenter-ants, both male and female, that under escort of workers left their arboreal chambers, and from the middle of the afternoon until midnight promenaded the neighboring branches, like a bevy of boarding-school girls on their daily walks 16 ANT QUEENS under their teachers’ ward. They re-entered their rooms, to appear from time to time, until the final sepa- ration from the parent nest, to which this formal parad- Ade MARRIAGE FLIGHT OF ANTS Worker ants urging males and females to leave the home nest ing was preliminary. It is not known that the virgin females of any species take part in the domestic econo- Wy, NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN my,' and that this is true of the males is almost certain. To them it is, or seems to be, the heydey of life; yet one sex is on the verge of a laborious career and life imprisonment, the other of his extinction. A warm dry season seems to be required for a mar- riage flight or swarming of ants. The period varies with the iatitude and the species. Enough time must be allowed for a goodly number of the sexed forms to mature. As these seem to come on later than the work- ers until the community is established, the season must be well advanced ere the first flight occurs. Some species will begin to cast off their dependants in the latter part of June. Late August sends out great num- bers; and September and early October are favorite months. The workers know the proper time for leaving the nest, and in part, at least, determine it by exciting the male and female adolescents to depart. They certainly make preparations for the exit, opening the formicary gates, urging their wards to the surface, and nagging them to take flight. Thus urged, they mount the mound, if there be one, or climb up the surrounding foliage, to which points the workers pursue them with their expulsive affection. Some even offer them nour- ishment for the last time, a sort of stirrup-cup, ere they set forth upon their aérial journey. The usual bustle that pervades the community shows that it is in high holiday, and that there is a general consciousness that a rare event is at hand. The workers fairly throb with self-importance, their pent-up energy 1A few instances have been cited of the virgin queens taking some part in the communal industries; but the rule is as here given, 18 SURFACE MOUNDS OF A MASON ANT (LASIUS) Works thrown up on a garden path in May, when the ants are enlarging the formicary for the growing community 3 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN causing their bodies to vibrate like a shaky vessel driven by a huge engine. They act much as they do when rushing in line or column to a battle-field. The winged forms share the common agitation, and tumble and crawl over one another, and spread their gauzy wings that quiver and give forth a faint crackling sound, and flash in the sunlight with iridescent colors, as though Iris had looped upon them tiny bits of her veil. And now, as if by one impulse, the emigrants begin to take flight. Singly, in pairs, in groups, in mass they rise, and flutter above the surface, rising or fallmg, or weaving in and out of the swarm seemingly in purposeless confusion. Sometimes I have seen two or three centres of migra- tion several feet apart, as though they were neighboring and fraternal nests of one species, or one widely extend- ed colony. In either case one is amazed at the vast numbers that pour out of the open gates, as if some Cadmus of the insect world had called by magic an army from the ground. If the nest-site happen to be on well-known ground he will wonder all the more, for the presence of such a multitude would never be suspect- ed by anything actually seen. Whence have they come? Where and how have they been kept? The swarm reaches several feet above one’s head or swings around the face, so that one may readily see the male lovingly escorting his companion, who is several times larger than himself. At times, the swarms will sink almost to the surface, when the lovers may be seen dropping from the mass and continuing their courtship on the grass. The course of a marriage flight is regulated by the direction and force of the wind. It has no relation to 20 ANT QUEENS the parent nest, to which none of the outgoers appear to return of their own motion. Nor, indeed, have they the power or ability to do so. In this respect there is a wide difference between winged ants and their cousins the bees and wasps. With the latter, wings are essential to the common life of hive or nest, and are instruments of transit to and fro on communal errands. They there- fore have the gift of locating the home and returning to it on wings. But ants are given wings simply for pre- serving the species, and these organs of flight are used for that alone. This includes the ability to bear the female to a fitting spot wherein to found a new com- munity. She escapes from the hurly-burly, and sees her home nest no more. As for the males, their life-mission ends with or soon after the marriage day, and nothing in nature seems to be kindly concerned about them. They are waste mat- ter in the world of life; like Falstaff’s recruits, mere “food for powder”; that is, prey for ant-destroying creatures, or flotsam and jetsam before the undula- tions of winds which drive their dry carcasses to and fro. Sometimes there is more or less uncertainty in an ant community as to the exact period for the marriage flight. At least, a difference of opinion would seem to arise between the ruling caste and the winged depend- ents. On and near the grounds of Mrs. Mary Treat at Vineland, New Jersey, were some nests of the Sanguine slave-makers (Formica sanguznea), in which I became much interested during several visits to that lady, during which we jointly studied the manners of several species. The winged forms began to emerge about the middle of June, and three days thereafter the interior of the glazed 21 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN AT PLAY IN THEIR PARK Young queens of the Agricultural ant romping on a pebble frame which had been placed over the colony was alive with them. Upon removing this cover the excitement greatly increased. Workers, red and black, mistresses and slaves, came out in such vast numbers that they literally covered the backs of the winged members— pushing, pulling, carrying, hurrying them into the underground passages, thus promptly deciding that their wards were not yet ready for that outside world upon whose unknown experiences the callow things seemed so eager to rush. A few days thereafter virgin queens were seen now and then wandering beyond bounds. But the attend- 22 ANT QUEENS ants quickly had them back into the formicary, usually leading them by an antenna. The males, too, were objects of solicitude, and were kept in until the time for the grand exodus arrived. I have suspected that, notwithstanding this vigilance, a queenling of excep- tional enterprise occasionally would escape, and go solitary to her destiny. On the eleventh day after the appearance of the sexed Sanguineas, preparations for the flitting began. Karly in the morning the slaves (Formica subsericea) commenced to throw aside the embankments which they had piled around the edges of the frame, and to excavate beneath it. Several openings were thus made to the principal apartments. The Sanguine mistresses now became very active. Numbers passed rapidly along the lines of black workers. They occasionally stopped to assist; then proceeded to another group as if to encourage and inspect the work, and again disap- peared within. This continued until about the middle of the day, when a large number of the Sanguineas joined their slaves in the trenches. Several large ap- ertures were soon made beneath the east and south sides of the frame. Now came sundown, and the queenlings, with their partners and escorts began to issue from the gates. Five wide doors had been opened, through which streams of insects with agitated wings were flowing. Many excited workers hung around the doors. They were not hinder- ing the exit now, but forwarding it. And the outgoers seemed eager for the change. They mounted blades of grass and stems of plants and from thence took wing. The foliage of the trees in the thick grove hindered free and continuous flight, and soon the leaves were 23 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN alive with the winged throngs. They were watched until the deep evening gloom prevented observation. Next morning all was quiet at the nest. The wild rush of the marriage flight had ebbed as rapidly as it rose. The slaves were closing the doors and restoring the embankments. Beneath the glass the large covered apartments, a day before so full of life, were vacant. In one corner, which had been used as a sort of kitchen- midden, was a good handful of cast-off wings. After the flight the workers had sallied forth, seized the females within reach, dragged them into the nest, and established them as associate queens. Scouts were still out hunting for such recruits; and every little while one would be brought in—now led by an antenna, now dragged by a leg, and again carried bodily in a worker’s jaws, which clasped her captive, whose form was bent like a letter C, her abdomen thrust beneath her porter’s forelegs. And always, ere this capture, the queenling had been dispossessed of her wings. And now, what next? I knew, said my informant,’ from former observations that a marriage flight would soon be followed by a sally of red soldiers in martial column to some negro colony, which they would assault and plunder, and kidnap the young. For this sight I remained, and witnessed it, greatly to my satisfaction, though much to the ill-content of the glossy black ants (Formica subsericea) whose home was raided. But the story of slave-making ants must wait for another chapter. The natural impulse which starts the marriage migra- tion from parent nests seizes multitudes in a neighbor- hood at the same time. As a result, in sections where the normal increase is not hindered by tilling the ground, 24 ANT QUEENS immense numbers of flying ants will be abroad at one - time. The contingents from various formicaries are driven together in masses until the united swarms in- clude myriads of individuals. The natural hostility existing between different spe- cies, and even between separate communities of the same species, seems then to be suppressed. It isa time of peace, as wedding events should be; and herein (if this be habitually so) nature surely works for the preser- vation of species. There is no proof and little likelihood that the barriers between species are broken down at these great mass-meetings by alien alliances. But the outputs of multitudes of nests are massed in a common swarm, and drift together before the wind, or take a common course in flight. This phenomenon has always been seen with wonder, as something most unusual, and reports thereof have commonly been largely discounted or wholly doubted. I have seen many large flights, but no such swarming myriads as have amazed observers. But from what I have seen, I can readily conceive how such hosts could be assembled. Moreover, I have indubitable accounts of such phenomenon from personal witnesses and per- sonal acquaintances whose word and the accuracy of whose observation are beyond challenge. A few ex- amples will well enough illustrate this feature of the life of emmet queens. A remarkable swarm of ants that crossed Holli- daysburg, Pennsylvania, on September 13, 1876, was reported to me by a correspondent. I referred the matter to a citizen of the place, the Rev. Dr. D. H. Barron, a gentleman of learning and discretion, who made a thorough examination and report. The ants, in 25 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN the course of their flight, had come in contact with mechanics at work upon the tower of a new court-house, and newspaper accounts said that they had been assault- ed vigorously. These men were visited, and communi- NK i ¥ i We Pe aan i AMM ithe ‘i \ 1a? it thee 1 ABS psa es v Nes pepe Se e aay A NEST OF MOUND-MAKING ANTS OF THE ALLEGHANIES Surface nest, showing mound three feet high, and twenty-five feet in circumference at base cated the following facts: The aay was clear, warm, and calm; the ants came between 10 and 11 a.m., from the direction of Chimney Rocks, a ridge of the Alleghany 26 ANT QUEENS Mountains southwest of the town. They came in “swarms so thick that one could hardly see through them.” They struck the building at a height of about one hundred and twenty or one hundred and twenty-five feet, and “assaulted” the men. Whether the attack was a bite or sting they could not tell, but it was some- thing uncomfortable. The ants were of two sizes, some larger, some smaller. One of the men had saved speci- mens which proved to be males and females of Myrmica lobicornis Nylander. This species can inflict a painful sting; but the ants probably attacked the workmen simply in self-defence—that is, the men happened to obstruct their flight, and vigorously brushed off the insects that lit upon them, which in turn becoming irate, the females applied their stings. Such a vast horde as this swarm contained must have been composed of the winged inmates of many formicaries on the mountain- side. A similar account was given me in 1884 by Mr. B. S. Russell, of the rufous or thatching ant (Formica rufa var. Americana), whose nests then occupied the rolling prairie country lying between the Cheyenne and the James River, in Dakota. The ants appear in the spring, with the first vegetation, and by hay-harvest, the latter part of July, the flying ants are seen. The swarms are very annoying to the inhabitants. A person driving or riding over the prairie will find himself suddenly in the midst of one of these hosts. The insects settle upon the body, and creep into the openings of the clothes. A swarm settled upon the house which my informant was then building, and the carpenters were compelled to leave it while in the act of shingling the roof. In the hay-field, the harvesters are often obliged to stop to 27 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN fight off the winged hosts, and those in charge of the hay-wagon abandon for the time the stack which is being hauled to the barn, on account of the annoying creatures. The same is true of the grain harvest which comes later, the appearance of the swarms continuing throughout August and into September. The ants, however, do not sting, my informant averred. The nervous irritation produced by contact with such numbers is the chief annoyance. Some horses show great excitement under the visits of the swarms, to which the more stolid mule is quite indifferent. These flying ants do not get angry when beaten off, and rush at and follow after the parties attacking them, as bees do. They whirl round and round in dense masses, alight upon an object within their path, but show no sign of hostility, or wish to pursue human or other animals who approach them. ‘The family of ants to which this genus (Formica) belongs, has no members possessed of true aculeate organs. The so-called “sting’”’ is really produced by the insect “biting” or abrading the skin with its mandibles, and then ejecting formic acid from its undeveloped stinging organs into the wound. The smart of the acid is quite severe. All this may have changed in the last twenty years,’ but the facts are given above as they then existed. Mr. W. C. Prime, well known as an author and editor, described for me and subsequently published the ac- count? of a swarm of ants seen by him on Lone- some and Profile lakes, two small waters in the White 1See my paper on this ant in Proceedings, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia (1884), p. 57 sqq. 2 New York Journal of Commerce, September 24, 1886. See also Proceedings, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. 28 ANT QUEENS Mountains of New Hampshire. The trout that inhabit these lakes feed upon various insects that hover over or sink upon the surface, and of whose habits they seem to have a tolerably correct notion. But there are certain annual visitations of insects which bring the trout out in unusual numbers, among which is the swarming of ants in marriage flight. The one described occurred Monday, September 6th. The wind fell flat calm at noon. Then Mr. Prime, while fishing on Echo Lake, became aware of the presence of the ants. Hav- ing become especially interested in the subject by a conversation with the author during a casual meeting in Florida the previous winter, he gave up fishing and began observations. He rowed completely around the lake and across the middle. There was no spot on the entire surface which was not more or less thickly covered with winged ants. He repeatedly counted the number on a square foot of water. The lowest count was five, the highest nineteen. He made a rough but sufficiently exact estimate of the lake surface as containing two million square feet. Taking the lowest count of ants per square foot, there was therefore not less than ten million lying on the water, and the actual number was probably several times greater. Estimated from the average number per square foot, the total would reach the enormous figure of twenty-four millions! This is only the begin- ning of the myriads. In the afternoon Mr. Prime found Profile Lake equally covered with the insects. The lakes are three-fourths of a mile apart. The boats of the pleasure-seekers, rowing in all directions, had swept the ants into wind- rows, thick masses of dead insects stretched up and 29 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN down and hither and thither on the surface. The trout were feeding along the edges of these windrows, gener- ally in groups. Ten, twenty, fifty fish would be half out of water at the same instant within a square rod. The ants did not reappear the next day. All of the millions that fell into the lakes became food for other animals. Those which the trout did not get, the in- numerable inhabitants of the water ate when they sank. These ants appear at about the same date every year and in the same numbers. The trout are fond of them, and feed ravenously upon them, as they do on the gnats, which also come in annual swarms. But, though there may be millions on the water, the fish do not touch them if they lie still and seem dead, as trout demand living objects for food. As an ant struggles on the surface among its dead companions, it attracts the eye of the fish, which rises and takes it. Mr. Prime kept no specimens, and one can only guess at the species represented. Many of them may have been of the same species as the Alleghany Mountain swarm just described. At all events, we have an authentic account by a careful and competent observer, which amply authorizes the fugitive stories of the incalculable numbers of flying ants seen in swarms from time to time in various parts of the world. We have thus considered the ordinary, or at least the most usual, mode by which the queen ant is sent out qualified for her duty of founding a new family. Dis- persed in the marriage flight, and thereafter borne by personal impulse and the force o’ the wind, she makes a suitable lodgement and begins at once to prepare her initial nest. But in some cases the conditions of dis- persal are different. The outpouring of numerous 30 ANT QUEENS winged forms, the excitement among the workers, the massing upon the ground, the ascent of neighboring plants, the nagging of males and females by their escort —all these are the same as heretofore described. But both males and females take flight separately, and seemingly without regard to one another. For a moment the queenlings would poise themselves upon their perch, spread their wings, sway them back and forth, and then rise in the air. Their manner showed no mark of the feebleness and uncertainty of inexperience, except, in some cases, a slight tendency to a zigzag course for the first few yards. The flight was thereafter, and commonly from the first also, strong A MARRIAGE FLIGHT OF WINGED CARPENTER ANTS 3l NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN and in a straight course. The insect first rose to a height of about twenty feet, which was soon increased to forty, fifty, and even sixty feet, and this latter height was maintained until the form was lost to sight. I was able to follow the voyagers in several instances to a distance of more than three hundred feet, before they disappeared, at which time they gave no sign of alight- ing. Others settled at a distance of sixty to eighty feet. Some flew into trees near by, which might be the upping-block for a second venture, or the undressing- room for dealation, in which case the ground must be reached. The flight was in every case solitary, and was in all directions, although generally in the course of the breeze. This method of dispersing the winged males and females by single and separate flight I have observed in several species. In such cases the meeting of the sexes and the marriage union must have taken place in the air; unless we infer, against current belief, that it preceded the flight. We are now to trace the first active steps in founding a new ant settlement. If the ant is by instinct subter- ranean, she makes a small cave or burrow in the ground, wherein she lays her first eggs. If the queen is a car- penter ant, she makes her initial cave in wood, doubtless availing herself at the outset of a convenient knot-hole or the boring of a beetle or other insect. The stages of progress may be illustrated best by giving the history of some examples carefully observed. The late distin- guished naturalist, Professor Joseph Leidy, turned over to me three fertile queens of the Pennsylvania carpenter ant (Camponotus herculeanus var. Pennsylvanicus) col- lected by him. One was taken August 9th in a chestnut log; the others August 14th in the stump of a chestnut- 32 ANT QUEENS tree. They were enclosed in small cavities about an inch in diameter, within which the queens had sealed themselves by closing up the original opening, and from which, as a nucleus, they must have cut out their resi- dent-room and nursery. When they sallied forth to obtain food, as they may have done (for I have often observed queens wandering solitary), they must have removed the plug, or “door,” and restored it upon re- entrance. However, it is quite within the bounds of probability that a well-fed queen can live without addi- tional food for a number of days after setting up house- keeping, and this is doubtless the usual course. In these nesting cavities were found the white, oval, or cylindrical eggs of the species; larvee of various sizes, from those just out of the egg, 2.3 millimetres long, to full-grown, about 10 millimetres; cocoons or enclosed pup; and in one case a callow antling, which was of the dwarf caste, as all the larvee and cocoons also ap- peared to be. There are three castes in a formicary of Camponotus, the worker-major, the worker-minor, and the minim, or dwarf. We may infer that the lat- ter caste is the one which is first produced in rearing a family. It has been conjectured that the imperfect nurture given to larvee, under the above circumstances, might account for the appearance of small workers first in order. Whatever may have been the fact in the remote origin of these castes among ants, it is certain that when the formicary has been fully peopled with workers, and the food supply is unlimited, the severa' castes continue to appear. Minims, minors, and majors, not only abound among the mature insects, but are found among the larvee and cocoons. These distinctions are a perma- 33 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN nent feature of the ant economy. ‘The fact is, in some genera, the workers have also remarkable differences in structure, as of the head, for example, in Pheidole and Pogonomyrmex. This appears to show that differentia- tion into castes is regulated by something other than the food supply. Females of Camponotus, when fertilized, go solitary, and after dispossessing themselves of their wings, begin the work of founding a new family in some convenient bit of dead or living timber. This work they carry on until enough workers are reared to attend to the active duties of the formicary, such as procuring food, tending and feeding the young, and enlarging the domicile. After that, the queens generally limit their duty to the laying of eggs. A series of valuable observations was made upon an ant queen by Mr. Edward Potts, a member of the Phil- adelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, in accordance with the author’s suggestions and directions. The ant was afterwards taken into the author’s possession and many of the observations were confirmed. June 16th, Mr. Potts captured a carpenter queen (C. pennsylva- nicus) running across a house-room floor, late at night. He placed it in a bottle, but forgot to examine it until five days later. The ant was then alive, and had laid six or eight eggs in the otherwise empty bottle. These eggs, in their various stages of development, she contin- ued to attend for about fifty days. A pinch of white sugar, moistened every evening with a drop or two of water, was the food supplied. At feeding-time, the mother would quit her otherwise unremitting watch over the eggs and larve, to press her mouth for a mo- ment into the sweet fluid, her labial and maxillary palps 34 ANT QUEENS meanwhile rapidly vibrating with pleasure. She was not prolific, but one or two eggs were added to the original stock from time to time, until about August 15th, making the highest number counted, nineteen of all ages. The larvee were at first scarcely larger than the eggs, and only distinguishable upon close observation by the slight grooves between the body segments and the ill- defined head. They grew gradually at first, and after- wards more rapidly, finally reaching a length of about one-quarter-inch, when they began to spin their cocoons. On the morning of July 20th, the first larva was sur- rounded by a single layer of web, within which it could be seen working. By evening the pupa-case was so dense that the larva was hidden. On the morning of the 21st, the second larva was covered, and the third by the evening of the 22d On the evening of August 11th, a worker was running about the bottle and already essaying its ministrations upon the undeveloped eggs, and the next series of larve, quite as big and much heavier than itself. Thus we had the period of thirty days, June 20th to July 20th, occu- pied in the development of the first eggs and the fulfil- ment of the larval stage. From July 20th to August 11th, twenty-two days, were spent in the pupa state. The manner of the newly fledged worker was nervous and far from soothing, especially to the well-grown larvee, who evidently much preferred the mother’s care to that of the elder sister. This antling was not seen feeding from the sugar, but upon one or two occasions made osculatory advances towards its mother as if seeking nutriment from the maternal fount, to which it became accustomed during its wriggling larvahood. It con- 4 35 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN stantly climbed over the eggs and larvee, apparently nipping them with its mandibles, but not moving them to any purpose, and making no well-defined attempt to feed them, as was done by the parent ant. It plainly added awkwardness to inexperience, or was defective in instinct. The mother would caress the larva by sundry pats, with her antennz, upon each side of the face, when, if hungry, it would lift up its head under her mandibles, placing its labium against hers, at which time a flow of liquid down the larval throat was seen. As the queen’s labors increased, she was less given to move her charges from place to place, though they were not allowed to remain long quiet. The maternal inclina- tion to tend and dandle one’s offspring seemed vigorous even in her emmet bosom. The moisture necessary to cleanse and refresh the larvee was apparently supplied from the salivary glands and tongue of the care-taker, who examined them one after another, moistened the dry places, and kept the egg and larval skins flexible. The queen was careful of the eggs, standing nearly all the time with her head over the little heap, occasionally picking them up to move them a quarter of an inch or more to one side. She was thrown into a great excitement of solicitude by a fly attracted by some crumbs within her domicile. She sprang fiercely at the intruder, and raged around her narrow compart- ment, seizing a group of eggs, as if to escape with them from a threatened danger. Then she replaced them, as if recognizing the impossibility of getting away; or, it may be, soothed by reason from her needless fear. Her demeanor indicated strong maternal solicitude; and how like our own mothers and wives! When ovipositing, the queen stood up high upon all 36 , ANT QUEENS three pairs of legs; the abdomen was thrown downward and forward between them, and the head bent back and beneath almost to meet it. The egg was then about half protruded. Considerable muscular action was visible throughout the abdomen, and when presently the egg was posited the ant straightened herself out with a visible air of relief. She forgot all about the egg, which was left for several minutes while she attended to other mat- ters. At last, accidentally touching it with one antenna, she picked it up and carried it to the family quarters, where the worker found it and placed it in the group of the older eggs. An evident intent at classifying the eggs and larvee was remarked, these having been kept separate, as far as the narrow limits would permit. This separation of the various stages of larval growth may be regarded as a common trait of all emmet species. On August 13th, another worker was released from its cocoon. The female appeared to assist in the de- livery, as she was seen standing over the neophyte, who seemed to be weak, its femora bent forward, the tarsi and tibiz still nearly reaching the end of the abdomen, indicating the manner in which the legs were folded in the cocoon. Immediately after release the mother gave the young imago nourishment. At this date there were in the formicary, beside the mature ants, two full-grown larve, very fat; two half- grown, and several smaller ones, with the eggs in differ- ent stages of development. The two oldest were then evidently about ready to spin into pupe. August 14th, one of the two full-grown larve was partly overspun, but so thinly that its motion was readily seen through the case. The other larva seemed quiescent, but examination with the lens showed muscu- 37 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN lar action in the posterior segments of the body. ‘This state of comparative torpor was thought to immediate- ly precede the act of spinning. At this date the work- ers had become less nervous in their motions, and the female had resigned most of her labors to them, resting much of the time quietly in one place. August 16th, the third worker had emerged, and was at once quite at home in attending to its duties. The second grown larva was then still uncovered and quies- cent. Close observation was required to show that it breathed, and it made no other visible motion. These observations establish, or confirm, the following points: (1) The manner of depositing the eggs, which, as well as the larve, are cared for by the queen until the workers mature. (2) The stages in the development of the eggs and larvee are partially noted. (3) The time required for the change from larval to pupal stage is about thirty days. (4) About the same period is spent in the pupal stage, the entire period of transformation being about sixty days. (5) The work of rearing the first broods of Camponotus begins the latter part of June or early in July. (6) About twenty-four hours are spent by a larva in spinning up into a cocoon. (7) The ant queen probably assists the callow antling to emerge from its case. (8) Not only larve, but occasionally also the antlings, are fed by the queen. (9) The young workers, shortly after emerging, begin their duty of nurses, caring for the eggs and tending the larve. Such is a fair type of the mode of founding an ant colony. Details will vary with conditions, with species, perhaps with individual temperament. But, on the whole, the reader can picture the prevailing process. Thenceforward, the course of progress is subject to the 38 ANT QUEENS exigencies of life; but under favorable surroundings the workers will increase, and will gradually take over all communal affairs which will multiply as the primitive house-cave enlarges. The queen becomes a mere agent for laying eggs, with a life-history which the opening chapter uncovers. CHAPTER III INSECT HERDS AND HERDERS T seems an amazing instinct that sends slave-making ants upon predatory raids to recruit the domestic laborers of their commonwealth by mature and larval captives of other species of their own family. But even more surprising is the instinct which leads ants to ap- propriate to their own uses insects of another order and of wholly different habit, and to create for them a nat- ural and wholesome environment. Yet this is what the naturalist finds. An ants’-nest is somewhat like certain French villages that serve as social centres and domiciles for the inhabi- tants, from which every morning workers radiate to the surrounding fields, wherein they earn their livelihood, and to which they return at evening. The formicary is the emmet home. The foraging-ground lies outside. Hence ants become great wanderers, and may be seen, often as solitaries, moving about in circuitous and greatly involved paths. In the course of these wander- ings they will be seen climbing trees, shrubs, and bushes. Here is one mounting, let us say, the stem of a rose-bush. “ Alas!’ exclaims some rose-culturing reader, “do I not know that act too well. Have I not often seen those mischievous mites thronging and preying upon my favorite plants (sy 40 INSECT HERDS AND HERDERS Thronging, yes; preying upon, no! Look more close- ly! Your rose-bushes are infested by certain small insects known to entomologists as aphides, but to you by the homelier name of “plant-lice.”’ They, not the ANTS COLLECTING HONEYDEW FROM AN APHID HERD roses nor the bushes, are the objects of the ants’ atten- tion. They are the so-called “ant-cows,” and if you like you may see the milking! As one case will give a fair measure of the whole range of habit, I ask readers to follow me in a special study made of this mode of feeding among the mound-making ants of the Alleghanies (Formica exsectoides Forel), whose vast communities, centred within their large conical mounds, has been described in the preceding chapter. We take our stand before this large mound, which is astir with thousands of insects hurrying to and fro in the various industries of the commune. Issuing from 41 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN and crowding into the gates or circular openings that skirt the base are two columns of workers. Their fel- lows hover around the doors, bent upon their several duties. But these columns keep up a steady march and countermarch without visible diminution of num- bers, and without cessation day or night. One column stretches off to the southwest, and disappears at in- tervals under flat stones. It reappears, crosses the tops of similar stones, intersects the lines of workers busy about the surrounding hills, and penetrating the jungle of grass beyond, is finally distributed among a number of young trees not far distant. The other column leads off in a straight line to the southeast for a distance of eight rods to a large oak-tree which stands by a stone wall that parts the wood tract contaiing the “ant city” from a field. Leaving the well-marked road at the foot of the oak, the column stretches along the trunk and is distributed among the. branches. A portion leads off upon one of the lower limbs, which overhangs the stone fence. Stand atop of the wall and look carefully among the twigs and branchlets. You have the key to the movements of the promenaders upon the avenue beneath. At various points vast numbers of aphids are clus- tered. They clasp the branches with their feet. Their abdomens are slightly elevated, their heads are depress- ed, and their beaks, which are a sort of suction-pump, pierce the tender bark, and tap the sweet sap coursing within. This is the natural food of aphids, and appears to undergo some change in transit through them that adds to its toothsomeness. But what has this to do with our ants? Wait. Note this worker. It approaches an aphid and fixes its attention upon the apex of the 42 INSECT HERDS AND HERDERS raised abdomen. Do you the same, and you shall see a minute drop of transparent liquid exuding. You have barely noticed it ere it has disappeared within the ant’s gullet! After a few moments’ waiting, again a droplet forms, which is also quickly lapped by the attendant ant. A longer interval must elapse ere another globule shall form, and you will grow impatient. The ant will hasten matters for you. See! She is gently stroking with her antennz the back of the aphid. Now on one side, now on the other, the delicate organs are gently drawn again and again. What does this mean? Why does your cat purr and curl contentedly in your lap when you stroke her fur? Why does your dog bend his head and stand still with such a seeming of muscular relaxa- tion and physical content when you stroke his head? Or, to get nearer home, why does the male of the human species (and some of the females as well) yield his head with such unutterable satisfaction to the deft manipula- tion of a loved hand, with or without the comb? Can you tell why? Then you know why the ant strokes the aphidian back, which is covered with papille or minute hairs. She has learned from her own experience “how good it feels,” and is promoting the aphidian com- placency by an approved method. And now another droplet of the sweet liquid is form- ing, yielded by the aphid to the deft diplomacy of the emmet. That liquid is the entomologist’s “honey- dew,” and you have seen an ant milking her cows! All over the tree, like scenes are occurring between hosts of foraging ants and aphids. The ant laps honeydew from the aphid; the aphid pumps sap from the tree; the tree draws moisture from 43 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN earth and sky, and earth and sky receive rain from the sea. Thus the circle of life runs, and ants, like other tenants of the earth, derive their nurture from Father Neptune. Our aphid shifts her position, and passes along the branch towards the trunk. Its first attendant had left, PORTION OF AN ANTS’-NEST A broken section of earth, showing aphids domesticated upon roots of plants seemingly from mere fastidiousness, and afterwards several ants had enjoyed the sweet refection. As the aphid moves away, it receives antennal salutes from sundry ants, as though they were challenging its dispo- og! INSECT HERDS AND HERDERS sition or resources; but it is allowed to pass on. Its abdomen is now at normal size, but the bodies of many of its fellows are rounded out from fulness, and, one would think, must feel uncomfortable. The ants, how- ever, are fast relieving them, and their own abdomens are undergoing a noticeable change. They swell and elongate until the folded membranous bands which unite the several segments thereof are pushed out into straight, white, transparent ribbons by the distension of the crops into which the honeydew first goes. At length the abdo- mens are so full that they become semi-translucent, and the burdened honey-gatherers turn towards home. These “repletes,”’ as they have been called, compose the descending column upon the tree-trunk, and their swollen abdomens with their whitish bands show in sharp contrast with the small, roundish, black abdomens of the ascending ants. At the foot of the tree a most interesting scene awaits the observer, to which the writer was thus led: Among the workers thronging the avenues radiating from the hills to various trees, the number of home-bound repletes was seen to be out of all proportion to those descending the trees from the feeding-grounds. Moreover, many workers were return- ing home without swollen abdomens. If they had not been foraging, what then? Or had they simply been more abstemious than their fellows? Led by these reflections to follow the repletes down the tree-paths with greater care, some of them were seen to disappear at the roots. This led to a discovery which the reader is now prepared to share. Let us clear away these dead leaves as noiselessly as may be. Turn back gently the sod at the angle of this bulging root. You have exposed a cavity whose occu- 45 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN pants, after their first flutter of surprise, will return to the business at which they were disturbed. In fact, they were drawing rations, live civil pensioners in war- time. And “pensioners” they have been called. Note the scene before you. The floor of the cavity is pierced by openings into galleries that evidently communicate with the central nest, more than a hundred feet away. Around these openings are huddled numbers of ants. Some try to escape down the galleries, and some are opposing or hindering them. Others are engaged in drawing or bestowing the honeydew ration. The proc- ess is a curious one. The replete is reared upon her hind legs, her fore legs out-stretched and her head ele- vated. A pensioner in like attitude faces her, with jaws lifted up against her jaws. Presently a droplet of honey- A WORKER ANT DRAWING A RATION OF HONEYDEW FROM A REPLETE 46 INSECT HERDS AND HERDERS dew appears upon the replete’s mouth, hanging to the maxille beneath. It has been forced out of the full crop by muscular contraction upon its enfolding sac, and is immediately lapped by the expectant pensioner. You may see two or even three ants thus feeding at once from the same replete. This is substantially the process by which the larve and antlings, the wing- less queens, and the winged females and males are fed. The repletes, as a rule, made no objection to this process; but at times one would show anxiety to break away without parting with her treasure. The pensioners would occasionally solicit a ration with their antenns; and once a replete was seized rather violently as though to coerce a gift. After the feeding the repletes dashed into the galleries and disappeared through the mass of legs, heads, and black abdomens of workers, all appar- ently engaged as above. A chief significance of the behavior here described is the view which it gives of the public economy of an ant republic. It seems to show a general movement which has much the appearance of a division of labor. _ Those members of the community engaged in building and in the internal economy of the formicary appear to leave the collecting of food, for the nonce, at least, to others of their fellows, not only for the dependants of the nest, but for themselves. Content with satisfying the simple wants of nature, they leave their work and visit the vicinage of the feeding-grounds to get food from the superabundance of those who have the duty of foragers. The points of contact are well chosen for this purpose, forming as they do a series of stations between the foraging-field and the nest. As many of the repletes 47 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN are plainly overloaded, no loss is wrought to the com- mune by relieving them. Besides, it seems probable that the instinct which urges repletes to gather store for the larvae, nymphs, and other dependants, might prevent them from yielding a part of their store to their fellow-workers after the nest had once been reached. It may be supposed that the surplus honeydew would be kept for individual delecta- tion, and thus the builders and sentinels be compelled to leave their work and forage for themselves. There- fore the general movement to arrest the repletes at the stations near the foraging-grounds is clearly for the publie good. The habit as here described prepares us to see how important to ants might be the domestication of aphid herds. That this is accomplished any one may readily satisfy himself by turning up flat stones in a field or woodside on a warm spring day. He will see groups of ants clustered upon the under part of the stone or in the excavated rooms and galleries in the matrix or pit beneath. Along with them he will see bunches of aphides. Great excitement will at once ensue, and the agitated emmets, each seizing an aphis in her jaws, will plunge with it into the underground galleries. Soon both ants and aphids will have disappeared. These aphid herds, as seen in early spring, are plump, and show signs of having weathered the winter in robust health. Evidently they had been well cared for by their emmet mistresses, whom they had doubtless repaid by draughts of honeydew. And this care extends also to the attention to their physical health and comfort, by which they are brought up from the cooler subterra- nean parts to the warm and dry vicinage of the stone, 48 INSECT HERDS AND HERDERS (TRt NAR ANTS’-NEST UNDERNEATH A FLAT STONE A herd of aphids brought up for an airing, or perhaps for ‘‘ milking” which, lying upon the surface, absorbs the heat of the sun. Multitudes of aphids subsist upon roots of plants. Indeed, it is here that they are most destructive to the horticulturist. From this habit it appears how much easier it would be for ants, who are also subterranean in habit, to acquire the instinct of domesticating aphids 49 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN for the sake of their sweet and nourishing excretion, and of bearing them from point to point, as they do their own younglings, and giving them generally the same care. But the herding instinct has gone yet further than transferring the aphids from their native quarters to those of the ants. It has gone further even than taking the eggs of aphids raised upon roots within the formicary limits, and rearing from them milking chattels. Lord Avebury has shown that ants have taken aphids’ eggs from the leaf-stalks of plants outside their nest where they had been laid in the autumn; have transported them to the interior of the formicary, where they were protected from the severity of the weather and other dangers; have tended them through the winter months, and then brought out the young, and replaced them upon the food-plant natural to them! Similar facts have been repeatedly observed by Professor A. 8. Forbes, of this country. He found ants tending the aphid eggs as carefully as their own. They even carried them over the winter season, to that end bearing them below the frost line. They would explore the vicinage of growing corn until they found the sprouting kernel, then mine along the growing shaft and put the aphids upon it. This clearly suggests, if it does not closely approach, that human ability to rear and keep herds which our race has held in such honor that it has called its kings “shepherds of the people,” its religious teachers “ pas- tors,” and even the Supreme Deity “The Shepherd.” Another feature of this herding habit deserves notice. At times one may observe that the aphids clustered around the axils of leaves or twigs on some plant, have been enclosed within or surrounded by a light wall or 50 INSECT HERDS AND HERDERS shed of mud or wood-dust composite. This is the work of attendant ants who have brought up particles of leaves, flowers, and decayed bark and pellets of soil from the ground, and thus, as one may say, have en- folded their flock. It is interesting to note in ants this behavior, which suggests the presence of a sense of communal propriety in food-yielding aphids; and— what seems to be a natural sequence therefrom—an AN EMMET SHEPHERDESS CARRYING ONE OF HER APHID FLOCK impulse to protect their interests from intruders by a process which, to say the least, reminds one of our own way of secluding domestic herds within folds, stock- yards, and corrals. This habit especially marks—though not limited there- to—a small black ant (Crematogaster lineolata), which has the odd fashion of doubling up its abdomen above its thorax as it walks, thus winning for itself the popular name of “turn-belly.” Aphids are not the only insects thus utilized. Afield, the larvee of certain butterflies that yield an agreeable 5 51 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN secretion are attended and solicited in the same manner as aphids. So also are some honey-yielding leaf-hoppers. Cocci and beetles are preserved within the nest, and if not reared are at least domesticated and adopted for the sake of certam animal products that they yield, and which serve as food. Both these insects, like the aphids, may be seen in the early spring flocking together in a warm corner of an ants’-nest beneath a stone. On being disturbed, the ants seize them and run into hid- ing precisely as they do with aphids. But the story of these other “ant-cows” must for the present remain untold. CHAPTER IV THE DAINTINESS OF ANTS—TOILET HABITS F there be truth in the old saying, cleanliness is next to godliness, insects are but one remove from piety. As tidy as an emmet—is more truthful than most proverbial comparisons. Who ever saw an untidy ant, or bee, or wasp? The author has observed innumerable thousands of ants, has lived in his tent in the midst of their great communities, and watched them at all hours of day and night, under a great variety of conditions, natural and artificial, unfavorable to cleanliness, and has never seen one really unclean. Most of them are fossorial in habit, digging in the ground, within which they live; are covered with hair and bristles, to which dirt-pellets easily cling; they move habitually in the midst of the muck and chippage and elemental offal of nature—yet they seem to take no stain and to keep none. This is true of other insects. Take, for example, the interesting families of wasps. Many burrow in the earth to make breeding-cells for their young. Others, like the mud-daubers, collect mortar from mud-beds near brooks and pools to build their clay nurseries and storehouses. Some, like the yellow-jackets, live in caves which they excavate in the ground. They delve in the dirt; handle and mix and carry it; mould and spread it, moving to 53 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN and fro all day long, and day after day, at work in sur- roundings that would befoul the most careful human worker—yet do not show the least trace of their occu- pation. Of course there is much in temperament and training. There are women who remind us of insects in their faculty of moving unmarred amid the current defile- ments of daily duty. They will pass to the parlor from kitchen, nursery, or sewing-room with no adjustment of toilet but a discarded apron or turned-down sleeves, yet quite sweet and presentable. But there are women, high and low, and men innumerable, of a different pat- tern. With insects, however, the type of dainty tidiness is the absolute rule. There are no exceptions; no de- generates of uncleanness, as with men. Temperament is wholly and always on the side of cleanliness; and training is not a factor therein, for it is inborn, and as strong in adolescents as in veterans. How has nature secured this admirable result? If the reader were told that ants possess brushes, fine and coarse tooth combs, and other toilet articles quite . after the pattern of our own, he would probably think he was being gulled. Yet it iseven so. Let us take an inventory of these. To begin with, the body is covered more or less closely with fine pubescence, corresponding somewhat with the fur of beasts. This is interspersed with bristles and spines, which are sometimes jointed, and are so arranged as to aid materially in keeping the body clean. Particles of soil cling to this hairy covering, but it is a protective medium, holding the dirt aloof and isolated from the skin surfaces, so that it can be readily shaken off or taken off. The brushing, washing, and 54 THE DAINTINESS OF ANTS combing of this hairy coat constitute the insect’s toilet- making. One of the efficient toilet articles is the tongue. Around the sides of this organ curves a series of ridges covered with hemispherical bosses. The ridges are chitinous, and thus by greater hardness are fitted for the uses of a brush. When eating, this structure rasps off minute particles of solid foods, thus fitting them for the stomach. For toilet uses it serves as both sponge and brush, and takes up bits of dirt not otherwise re- moved. In short, ants use their tongues as dogs and cats do, for lapping up food and licking clean the body. One is continually reminded, as he watches the tiny creatures at their toilet, of the actions of his cat and dog at the fireside. The tibial comb or fore-spur is another toilet imple- ment, unique in form and function. ‘This is a real comb, PART OF AN ANT’S FORE LEG, SHOWING ITS TOILET APPARATUS which might well have served the inventor of our own combs for a model, its chief difference being that it is permanently attached to the limb that operates it. It has a short handle, a stiff back, and a regularly toothed edge. It is set into the apical end of the tibia of the fore legs, upon which it articulates freely (tb.c), thus giv- ing the owner the power to apply it to various organs. Placed along the edge are about sixty-five teeth of equal 55 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN length, except towards the apex, where they are shorter. They are pointed at the free end and enlarged at the base, are stiff but elastic, and spring back when bent, as do the teeth of a comb. The efficiency of this instrument is greatly increased by an arrangement of the tarsus, opposite whose base it is placed. That part of the leg is so shaped that the curved outlines of the tibial spur when pushed up against it fit into it. It is furnished with about forty- five teeth, coarser and more open than those just de- scribed. Thus ants have the useful arrangement of fine and coarse toothed combs which for toilet uses are practically united in one instrument. A further con- tribution to the toilet paraphernalia is a secondary spur, a simpler form of that on the fore legs, set upon the tibize of the second and third pairs of legs. More- over, the mandibles, or up- per jaws, which are palm- shaped and serrated, are used freely, especially in cleaning the legs, which are drawn through them while loosely held between them. a In this action there is a sali- TOILET ACCESSORIES OF ANTS vary secretion that moist- preptby spam’) ens the members, and fur- a, secondary spur or comb ; P b, teeth of tibial comb nishes a good substitute for those “washes”? which are valued by men and women as softening the hair and making it more pliable. Indeed, one might almost conjecture that it is also the emmet equivalent for our toilet soaps! 56 THE DAINTINESS OF ANTS There are no pastes and powders among these toilet articles—at least as far as known—but the repertoire, it will be seen, is tolerably complete: fine-tooth combs, coarse or “reddin’”? combs, hair-brushes and sponges, washes and soap!—and all so conveniently attached to the body and working-limbs, which are arms as well as legs, that they are always literally “on hand” for service. Ants have no set time for brushing up. But cer- tain conditions plainly incite thereto—as when they feel particularly comfortable; as after eating, or after awak- ing from or before going to sleep. The keen sense of discomfort aroused by the presence of dirt incites to cleansing. Often one may see an ant suddenly pause in the midst of the duties of field or formicary and begin to comb herself. Here is a mountain mound-maker (Formica exsectoides) driven by the passion of nest- building to the utmost fervor of activity. Suddenly she drops out of the gang of fellow-workers, and mount- ing a near-by clod, poses upon her hind legs and plies teeth, tongue, and comb. For a few moments the aim of being is centred upon that act. Around her coign of vantage sweeps to and fro the bustling host of builders with all their energies bent upon reconstructing their ruined city. She combs on unconcernedly. From top of head to tip of hind legs she goes, smoothing out ruffed hairs and removing atoms of soil invisible to human eyes. Her toilet is ended at last. A few lei- surely finishing-strokes and she rises, stretches herself, calmly climbs down her pedestal, and is immediately infected with the fervor that lashes on the surging throng around her, and is lost in the crowd. Mean- 57 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN while, other workers have dropped out of the lines, and may be seen here and there at their ablutions. Thus it goes in the field, as one may easily see if he have tact and patience. But artificial nests give the best opportunity for careful observation, although one must allow for the unnatural surroundings.* No doubt with ants, as with man, artificial conditions of society induce greater at- tention to personal appearance. Thus the author’s imprisoned ants would invariably be drawn out from their underground lodgings by the light and heat of lamps at night. They would gather in clusters against the glass of the formicary next the lamp, and after some preliminary jostling and skirmishing for position would begin to wash themselves. Slight elevations, afforded by irregularities in the surface, were favorite seats. The modes of operating are so various that it is difficult to describe them, much more to fix the atti- tudes with the pencil. But typical poses at least may be described. In cleaning the head and fore parts of the body, the insect often sits upon the two hind legs and turns the face to one side. Then the fore leg is raised and passed over the face from the vertex to the mandible—that is, from the top of the head to the mouth. Meanwhile the head is slowly turned to expose both sides to manipu- lation; and if this is not satisfactory the position is reversed and the opposite leg brought into play. In 1 These notes, and the sketches upon which the illustrations are based, were made chiefly from three species in confinement—the Agricultural ant (Pogonomyrmex barbatus), the Florida Harvester (Pogonomyrmex crudelis), and the Honey ant of the Garden-of-the- gods (Myrmecocystus hortus-deorum). 58 THE DAINTINESS OF ANTS “doing up the back hair”—as one may say—the head is further dropped and the leg with its movable spur- comb, which has free play like a comb in a human hand, is thrown quite behind the vertex, and moved forward again and again through the tufts of hair growing there. In these and other cleansing movements the leg will be COMBING THE HEAD AND THE BACK HAIR drawn through the jaws at intervals, to moisten it or to wipe off the dust caught in the comb. The action re- minds one of the alternations of pussy’s paw between mouth and neck when washing the back of her head and ears. Cleaning the abdomen and the stinging organs at the apex, which is surrounded by circles of hairs, places the ants in grotesque attitudes; although herein also one notes a miniature of the ways of domestic animals. For example, the hind legs will be thrown backward 59 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN and well extended; the middle pairs set nearly straight outward from the thorax and less extended, so that the body is nearly erect. The abdomen is then turned under the body and deflected upward towards the head, which at the same time is bent over and downward. The body of the ant thus forms a letter C, or nearly a circle. Meanwhile the forefeet have clasped the abdo- men, the tarsus passing quite around and beneath it, and the brushing has begun. The strokes are directed towards the tip of the abdomen, which is also sponged off by the tongue. Occasionally the leg is rubbed over the head after being drawn through the mouth, and so again to the abdomen. One ant was seen cleansing its abdomen while hanging by the hind legs from the roof of the formicarium. The abdomen was thrown up and between the legs, as a gymnast on the turning-bar throws his body upward between his arms. The head was then reached upward, and tongue and forefeet were engaged as above described. Another emmet acrobat was caught in the act of cleansing its legs while hanging by one foot, the under part of the body being towards the observer. During these toilet actions the formicarium presented a most interesting view, especially in the evening, when the table-lamps were lit and the ants had been fed, and a general “washing-up”’ was in progress. But one of the most interesting features was the part which the insects took in cleansing or “shampooing”’ one another. This was a new and pleasing revelation in life habit. It was unexpected, but after-experience showed that nature has taught these little creatures the value of co- operation in such matters among fellow-communists. 60 THE DAINTINESS OF ANTS Ants are particularly liable to attack of parasites—a danger increased by imprisonment. As these enemies pass from one to another, and thus become a common peril, every individual has an interest in the personal health and habits of his neighbors. This is shown in the friendly offices here described. We may easily think of men as saying, “My neighbor’s premises are untidy; he lacks the means and the disposition to keep clean; he is infected—what is that to me?’ But citizens of an emmet commune are apt to be superior to such self- ishness, and seem to feel instinctively—at least so to act—that the pernicious habits and personal misfort- unes of the individual highly concern his fellows and the public. Perhaps this is fortified by a natural amia- ODD TOILET ATTITUDES Ants cleansing the legs and the stinging organs 61 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN bility that delights to give pleasure. And what a pleasure most animals feel in manipulation of the hair and body! The now popular art of massagerie appears to be naturally practised by ants, doubtless antedating by ages the habit of men. But we forbear. This is anthropomorphic! It may be well to explain that these shampooing ants are not wholly disinterested in their kindly acts, for it has been suggested that they may ob- tain some sort of nourishing material from the bodies which they treat. Let us peep into this group snugged up against the warm glass side of the formicary. They have finished their evening meal of sweets; have drunk, after their fashion, by lapping water from moistened wood, and most of them are busy at their toilet. And here is one receiving a sort of Turkish bath! A fore leg is held up, which a fellow-worker is sponging with her tongue, moving gently with “the lay of the hair” from thigh to foot. Then the mouth is passed steadily over the body; next the neck is licked, then the prothorax and head. Now the friendly operator leaves, and her comrade takes up the toilet service for herself. Note another couple. The cleanser has begun at the face, which is thoroughly brushed, even the jaws being cared for, which are held apart for convenient manipu- lation. From the face the operator passes to the thorax, thence to the haunch, and so along the first leg, along the second and third legs in the same manner, around to the abdomen, and thence up the other side to the head. Another ant approaches and joins in the friendly task, but soon quits it. All this while the attitude of the cleansed ant is one of intense satisfaction, quite like that of a family dog when one scratches his neck. The 62 THE DAINTINESS OF ANTS insect stretches out her limbs, and, as her friend takes them successively into hand, yields them limp and sup- ple to her manipulation. She rolls slowly over upon her side, even quite over upon her back, and with all her limbs relaxed presents a perfect picture of muscular surrender and ease. The pleasure which the creatures take in being thus brushed and “sponged” is really enjoyable to the ANTS GIVING A FRIENDLY TONGUF BRUSH TO THEIR FELLOWS A, cleaning the abdomen; B, the legs and sides; C, the mouth parts stander-by. The author has seen an ant kneel down before a fellow and thrust forward its head, drooping, quite under the face, and lie there motionless, thus ex- pressing as plainly as sign-language could do her wish to be cleansed. The observer understood the gesture, 63 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN and so did the supplicated ant, for she at once went to work. The acrobatic skill of these ants was fully shown one morning in the offices of ablution. The formicary had been taken from its place, where it had become chilled, and set on the hearth before an open fire. The warmth was soon diffused through the nest, and roused its occu- pants to unusual activity.