CARPENTERS, HARVESTERS 209 



house and take anything they want without asking for it. 

 No wonder our ants don't return their calls. 



ALBERT. What do you think? It's April 6th and our 

 ants are laying eggs. I removed the tin roof quickly today 

 and about 700 ants and six bunches of eggs, with about 

 thirty in a bunch, lay before me. The ants grabbed the 

 eggs and ran. I counted the number in one bunch. 



KENNETH. I counted eight slugs that had run out of 

 track material and were stranded on the sidewalk this 

 morning to be roasted in the sun. 



DOROTHY. These things have lived two weeks under a 

 stone : 



1 cricket Florence's pet. 

 6 sow bugs nobody's pets. 



200 of the Dwarf ants. 



Other animals often called as visitors. 



KENNETH. Our ants are beginning to come out a little, 



but they're not working to speak of. I ran a straw through 

 the closed door and pulled it out with two workers hang- 

 ing to it. They let go and took some pieces of walnut into 

 the house. Then other ants carried in all the rest. 



ALBERT. I want to prove the Acrobats are fighters. 

 For some reason they don't want any other ant around the 

 black acacia tree, but a big Carpenter got too close. My 

 picture shows the result. 



FLORENCE. Were the five Acrobats all on one side of 

 the big ant? 



KENNETH. No. Two of them had clasped the legs just 

 opposite those shown in the picture. Although the Car- 

 penter had killed these Acrobats, she soon died also. The 

 jaws of E had closed on a feeler of D, by mistake, of 

 course. The jaws of A, C and D had clasped the joints of 

 the legs for good reasons. No Acrobat had tackled a fore- 

 leg. Wonder why? 



