The Ants 



exceptionally and seems to be intermediate between female and 

 worker. 



The community life of ants and their industry, thrift and sup- 

 posed foresight have been the subject of observation and comment 

 since the earliest times. The biblical references are familiar to all 

 and the old ideas are well formulated in part in La Fontaine's 

 charming fable of the Grasshopper and the Ant. Milton, Prior and 

 many other poets have sung praises of the ant, and it is safe to 

 use the trite expression and say that it is "fabled in song and 

 story." In "The Royal Dream Book," an English north-country 

 chapbook, it is said that "to dream of ants denotes that you will 

 live in a great town or city, or in a large family, and that you will 

 be industrious, happy, well-married and have a large family." 



The ants form a 

 very largegroup. 

 More than two 

 thousand species 

 have been de- 

 scribed. Sharp 

 estimates that 

 there are prob- 

 ably five thou- 

 sand species in 

 existence. There 

 is a marked uni- 

 formity of struc- 

 ture as well as of Fig. — 22. Monomonum minutum. 



habits in this great group and the systematic workers have so far 

 made only eight families, of which the Camponotidae, or common 

 stingless ants, and the Myrmicidae, or stinging ants, are the most 

 familiar examples to persons living in the more northern United 

 States. Representatives of the curious ants of the family Pon- 

 eridae occur in the Southern States. 



Many stories have been told of the supposed intelligence of 

 ants, but perhaps it will not be out of place to tell one more which 

 has not been published. In one of the greenhouses of the 

 Department of Agriculture at Washington, a medium-sized black 

 ant occurred in considerable numbers, attracted by the presence of 

 plant lice and mealy bugs upon the hothouse plants. As is well 

 known, ants are especially fond of the nectar secreted by these 



39 



