ANIMAL FOOD 191 



groups instead of alone, like the cat. This is when they 

 have plenty of food. I suppose that many of the ant 

 quests lived alone and concluded they would move into 

 ant colonies, where there was plenty of food. "What if our 

 ants would quit work? 



ALBERT. I read of a small cockroach that lives with 

 an African ant and takes airplane rides on the backs of 

 the winged ants. 



FLORENCE. How do the little crickets that live with 

 ants make a living? 



CECIL. They make a living by licking ants. They live 

 on the oil and saliva that the ants burnish their bodies 

 with. 



KENNETH. You know our ants left a hundred white 

 mites in the nest when they moved. I saw these same 

 mites running around on the yard several times before our 

 ants left. 



FLORENCE. Certain other mites get on your body. 

 Yes, and sometimes mould gets on you down in your damp 

 house. How do you get them off? 



ANT. We get the mould off with our rough tongues, 

 and try to get the mites off the same way. 



DOROTHY. What harm can mites do? 



ANT. You saw the captured ant colony in the show- 

 window of the drug store. Well, all the ants of a captured 

 colony may be destroyed by mites. The same is true of a 

 wild colony. 



Animal Food. 



ALBERT. I notice that many ants use other animals as 

 food even Harvester ants use some animal food. Our 

 ants could hardly drag a spider because it kept spinning a 

 thread that entangled the ants' legs. 



