516 The Outline of Science 



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THE STORY OF ANTS 

 The Marvels of the Ant-hill 



Of all insects, Ants must be placed on the highest level, for 

 none have better mastered the art of living together in a mutually 

 beneficial manner, and many ant communities show considerable 

 elaboration. Let us, then, take the case of ants as a par- 

 ticular illustration of the distinctive features of insect societies. 

 Here we have "a community of separate individuals with more 

 or less of a corporate life, and with the power of acting as a 

 unity." Many Ants live for a number of years, so that one 

 generation may teach another the profitable arts which lead to 

 the success of the community. The welfare of the species is 

 the important matter, and the individual is often sacrificed, as 

 well as specialised, for the common good. There are three types 

 of individuals winged males, winged females, and wingless 

 "workers" or undeveloped females; and the workers may be of 

 different kinds, large and small or with huge mandibles in the 

 "soldier" type. We see a division of labour. The busy workers 

 tread the neighbourhood of the nest into a pattern of "ant roads" 

 by which they come and go on their foraging expeditions. Smell 

 counts for much in way-finding. Within the nest, the workers 

 have their home duties, they look after the young, feeding them 

 and carrying them from room to room to secure a suitable tem- 

 perature, and they bite open the cocoons when the perfect insects 

 are ready to emerge. 



Mutual aid and harmony seem to reign within the com- 

 munity, but there are terrible wars with other species, which are 

 carried out in a well-organised fashion. Ants have the instinct 

 of acting together and seldom make individual attacks, but they 

 never seem to hesitate to sacrifice themselves for the protection 

 of the community. Sometimes these warlike expeditions are 

 initiated with a definite end in view, that of capturing slaves. 



