OTHER ANIMALS LIVE WITH ANTS 15 



ANT. A well ant can lay off work at any time and no 

 attention is paid to her. 



FLORENCE. Don't you wish you were an ant, Albert? 



Other Animals Live with Ants. Food. 



ALBERT. Do other animals live in the house with you? 



ANT. Of course, and other animals live in the house 

 with you, also. 



ALBERT. I see so many little red spiders, or mites, in 

 your yard. Do you want them there? 



ANT. No, but we can't catch them. 



FLORENCE. You're too slow for any use. 



ANT. Let me see you capture that fly on your nose. 



ALBERT. Why do you let so many things live in the 

 house to annoy you? 



ANT. You never have any flies and fleas at your home, 

 I suppose. 



ALBERT. You say that bugs, or beetles, live with ants. 

 Tell us about them. 



ANT. There is a single family of two hundred kinds of 

 beetles, and each bug spends the daytime in the nest of 

 some kind of ant. Most of these beetles have moose horns. 



ALBERT. Do ants ever feed any of the bugs? 



ANT. A beetle will walk up to an ant, place its mouth 

 against the mouth of the ant, ask for food, and get it. 

 That is one way we feed our kings, queens, babies, and 

 hungry sisters, too. 



ALBERT. Does one ant ever get food from another in 

 any other way than by asking for it with soft strokes of 

 the feelers? 



ANT. Yes. Some ants will lick not only the head and 

 face of another when asking for food, but even the abdo- 



