THE NEW HOME. WHY ANTS MOVE 159 



found it staggered and didn't know anything. I looked 

 further and found one feeler gone. 



ANT. If it had a stroke of some kind and was danger- 

 ous our ants may have removed a feeler to make the sick 

 ant harmless. But how do you know this crippled ant 

 didn't lose its feeler in a battle that caused us to move? 



CECIL. Suppose you name all the reasons you might 

 have for moving. 



ANT. We might move on account of enemies, visitors, 

 flood, drouth, cold, heat, bean patch, or scarcity of food. 

 We might move to high ground for the rainy season. 

 Some ants may send off a section of their family to start 

 a new colony. I suppose we move for about the same 

 reasons you do. 



CECIL. After the rainy season is over, many insects 

 die of old age, starve, hibernate, or change their forms. 

 Some move to watered lawns, while others live in earth 

 cracks or otherwise hide in daytime. 



ALBERT. I notice that when man moves, some of his 

 ant families do also. Fifty colonies live in or near this 

 watered lawn, but not one in the dry bean patch. 



CECIL. Yes, but that is because there are no weed 

 seeds in it now. 



About Ants' Nests. 



KENNETH. Some Harvester doors are long slits. These 

 follow old earth cracks or are caved-in subways or sun 

 parlors. I looked in a large door and found the ants were 

 closing the smaller inner doors with a pile of pebbles 

 collected for that purpose. The nest was over a year old. 



CECIL. I found the funniest crater eighteen miles east 

 of San Diego. It was three inches high and only four 



