Tilt: lilTlSG POWERS OF AXTS 



141 



life. We have it on the autliority of au 

 army surgeon, that "one of the best exam- 

 j.lcs of scavenger work of the ant" may be 

 had by taking a bed ridden with bedbugs, 

 or better, a mattress, and i)lac'ing it over an 

 ant heap. Every nook and ereviee will be 

 idealised of eggs and bugs in a fashion that 

 will jmt disinfectants to shame.' Ant colo- 

 nies are placed under houses in China so 

 that the ants n:ay destroy the termites that 

 infest them. 



The most interesting use of ants liy man 

 that I have so far learned about is in sur- 

 gery. I present part of an account given by 

 the director of the Laboratory of the Medi- 

 cal Faculty of Paris :- 



"The mandibles of ants and of several 

 coleopterous insects, Scaritcs in particular, 

 have long been employed in Asiatic surgery. 

 This usage is of the most ancient date with 

 the surgeons of India and is perpetuated in 

 our day in Algeria by the Arab operators 

 and to some extent by the Turks in Asia and 

 the Greek barbers of Smyrna. 



"According to an English entomological 

 .iournal.'! the barber presses upon the edges of 

 the cut with the fingers of the left hand and 

 applies each ant by means of forceps held in 

 the right hand. The mandibles of the ant 

 are widely opened, the animal being in the 

 defensive attitude, and as the insect is grad- 

 ually brought near the wound it seizes the 

 projecting surface . . . and immediately 

 forces its mandibles through the flesh . . . 

 and remains in this attitude, pressing the 

 one mandible against the other with force 

 and consequently holding the two edges to- 

 gether. Then the barber separates the head 

 from the thorax with a snip of the scissors, 

 and the head with the mandibles remaining 

 in place continues its function while the 

 thorax and abdomen fall to the ground. 



"The same operation is repeated with 

 other ants until at times there may be a 

 dozen pairs of mandibles placed at regular 

 intervals, so that through its whole length 

 the skin is united by this very ingenious 

 procedure. The heads are allowed to re- 

 main a few days, after which, since the heal- 

 ing has been effected, they are loosened and 

 having performed their office are henceforth 

 useless." 



It is stated on good authority * that in 

 Brazil the savages use this species "for 



' Capt. P. L. .Tones, The Military Surgeon, 27, 

 1910. pp. 78-79. 



- Baudoin. M., The Use of Ants in Operative 

 >redicine. Rev. Scit-nt. du Bourbonnais, 11, 1898, 

 pp. 2.52-253. 



^ Mr. R. M. Middleton who wrote the article in 

 an English entomological journal referred to by 

 Dr. Baudoin, gives the name of the species of ant 

 used in Asia Minor as Catagbjphia viatica Fabr. 

 A South American leaf-cutting species Atta cepha- 

 lotes L. is known to be used for the same pur- 

 pose. 



* M. E. Moquerys in the Bulletin of the Enlo- 

 moloijical Society of France, meeting of October 

 2:^. 1844. 



holding together the edges of a wound. . . . 

 Then they tear away the abdomen and the 

 thorax leaving only the head at the edges of 

 the closed wound. It is not rare to see 

 among the Brazilian natives one who has a 

 wound in which the process of healing is 

 assisted by the heads of 7 or 8 of these 

 ants" (p. Ixvii). 



I know of but one instance of the use of 

 the mandibular poAvers of ants by any ani- 

 mal other than man, but this single instance 

 is decidedly interesting and I believe indi- 

 cates that future observations will bring to 

 light other similar phenomena. 

 The observation is as follows: •'■ 

 "The occupants of a recently disturbed 

 ant hill were excitedly crawling about the 

 hill and the adjacent cement walk. They 

 were large, and to a blue jay in a neighbor- 

 ing tree they luust have looked luscious, for 

 thing down, the jay began to pick them up 

 with an eagerness that seemed to say that 

 this was an opportunity that might come his 

 way but once. As rapidly as he could do it 

 he seized the ants, with each capture lifting 

 a wing, sometimes one, sometimes the other, 

 and seemed to deposit his prey amongst the 

 feathers back of and underneath it. So 

 ijuickly he worked and with such evident 

 eagerness to make the most of this rare 

 occasion that, as he lifted the wing, putting 

 his bill amongst the feathers, it often seemed 

 that he must lose his balance and topple over 

 backwards. But he kept his poise, worked 

 on with all speed and had laid in quite a 

 store when a passerby frightened him from 

 his task." 



There can be no doubt that this bird was 

 taking advantage of the biting-on habit of 

 ants to attach a number of them to its 

 feathers. What the ultimate object of the 

 action was can only be learned from further 

 observation. 



To sum up, the biting powers of ants are 

 brought into play in practically every ae- 

 ti-vity of these insects; to themselves the 

 more delicate functions of the mandibles, as 

 well as their most powerful piercing, cut- 

 ting, and crushing uses, are valuable. To 

 other animals the strong biting powers and 

 especially the jaw locking habit of ants seem 

 mo.st important. The adaptation of these 

 qualities of ants to ordeals and executions 

 is ingeniously cruel, and their use in sur- 

 gery by savage tribes is wonderful. What 

 then shall we say if it is confirmed that 

 an animal lower than man has learned to 

 turn to its advantage the instinctive death 

 grip of ants? 



^ Bv Grace EUicott of Newcastle, Ind., Note on 

 the Food of Blue .lay, Guide to \ature, I, No. 5, 

 Aug., 1908. p. 168. 



