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Ants — Part 4

There need be no great interruption from the weather, since colonies of ants can be studied to advantage indoors. Sir John Lubbock, in his charming book entitled, "Ants, Bees and Wasps," carried such colonies along for several years. He kept in captivity, in fact, about half of the British species of ants, as well as a considerable number of foreign forms, and for several years he had generally from thirty to forty communities under observation. He found that the most convenient method was to keep them in nests consisting of two plates of common window-glass about ten inches square, and at a distance apart of one-tenth to one-fourth of an inch, in fact, just sufficiently deep to allow the ants freedom of motion, with slips of wood around the edges, the intermediate space being filled up with fine earth. The nests were kept covered over, except when under actual observation, since ants very much dislike light in their nests. On one side a small door was left. These glass nests were either kept in shallow boxes with loose glass covers, resting on baize, which admitted enough air, or on stands surrounded either by water or by fur with the hairs pointing downward. Some of the nests were arranged upon stands. Comstock tells how the habits of ants can be studied in a school-room by establishing a colony in an artificial nest. His arrangement practically follows that of Sir John Lubbock. He takes two pieces of window-glass ten inches square, a sheet of tin eleven inches square and a piece of plank one and one-fourth inches thick, twenty inches long and at least sixteen inches wide. He cuts a triangular piece, about an inch long on its two short sides, from one corner of one of the panes of glass. From the sheet of tin he makes a tray three-eighths of an inch in depth. On the upper surface of the plank, a short distance from the edge, he cuts a deep furrow. This furrow is kept filled with water in order to prevent the escape of the ants. The tin tray is placed on the plank, within the furrow, the square pane of glass is laid in the tray, and along the edges of the glass are laid four strips of wood about a half an inch wide and a little thicker than the height of the ants to be kept, then a layer of fine earth is placed in, and the pane of glass of which one corner has been cut off is laid on the strips of wood, and the whole is covered with something which will keep the nest dark.

The general features of the community life of ants of the commoner genera may be briefly summarized as follows: A community is supposed to be founded by a single queen which lays white or yellowish, elongate eggs, which hatch in two weeks or more. The larvae are white, legless, helpless creatures which, in the beginning of the colony, are attended by the queen and which develop into workers. As the community grows, egg-laying is continuous, new queens are born and these pair with the males and lay eggs, the workers, as soon as they begin to make their appearance, taking care of the larvae, feeding them and carrying them about from chamber to chamber in order to secure the suitable warmth and moisture. In different parts of the community will be found larvae of comparatively similar size, the smallest ones in one place, larger ones in another, and still larger in another. These larvae have to be fed for a month or more, according to the species, and when full grown transform to pupae, sometimes naked, sometimes covered with a silken cocoon. The cocoon is usually white, and is also carried about to suitable places by the workers. When an ant colony is disturbed the workers are seen scurrying about, carrying these cocoons, endeavoring to carry them to a place of safety, and the common idea is that these cocoons are eggs, but they are a great deal larger than eggs. In three to four weeks the pupae emerge, and in emerging from the cocoons they are helped by the workers, which are said to take the greatest care of them, unfolding their legs and helping them expand their wings. The males die very soon as a rule, but the females and the workers are very long-lived. Lubbock kept two queens for more than seven years, and certain workers more than six.