192 ANTS AND CHILDREN OF THE GARDEN 



FLORENCE. You don't always hunt in groups, for I 

 saw a lone ant coming* home from a distance with a 

 cucumber bug. 



KENNETH. I threw a handful of sow bugs into our 

 ants' nest, but they soon rushed out covered with ants. 



FLORENCE. I don't see how you can eat dried meat. 



ANT. Is it any harder to eat than the dried seeds you 

 see us carry home by the thousand? 



KENNETH. Isn't the sow bug an insect? 



FLORENCE. I should say not. The sow bug is a 

 louse, a wood louse, and our ants eat it, too. 



CECIL. I left a jumping spider and three large insect 

 larvae on the crater and the ants carried them in. That 

 spider can jump four inches. Once I saw it spring up 

 from one weed to another. 



DOROTHY. Often I see our ants dragging home the 

 bodies of honey bees. I wonder if ants ever bother bee 

 hives ? 



CECIL. Some kinds of ants will enter beehives for 

 honey. 



KENNETH. Once last fall I saw a Carpenter trying to 

 keep bees, flies and yellow jackets away from the fruit 

 parings. They all wanted the piece of cactus apple. The 

 ant often fell several inches in springing at the other 

 insects. The bees and yellow jackets wouldn't budge until 

 they were actually tackled. 



CECIL. An ant and a rose beetle were on one of the 

 little posts by the nest. The ant climbed over the bug 

 three times, lay close beside it for a while, held its mouth 

 against the bug half a minute three times, but stayed by 

 itself most of the day. 



KENNETH. A rose beetle was on one of the little posts. 

 I threw the bug on the ground. Five ants attacked it and 



