162 INSECT PESTS 



according to age and sex, washing and feeding them, 

 swarming the males and virgin queens in mid-June and 

 so on. We may also witness the fine instinct by which 

 they instantly know stranger or friend even after long 

 periods of separation, how they will fight to the death 

 foes hundreds of times their own size and weight, as 

 well as the marvellous intricacy and mystery of communal 

 action and understanding. For the purposes of this 

 chapter, however, we must regard ants as merely mechani- 

 cal helps in the aeration of the soil, and in this they 

 are not the only nor by any means the most important 

 creatures. 



The premier place in this respect belongs to the Common 

 Earthworm, and this creature probably has a much longer 

 history than that of the ant, certainly an even more 

 valuable one, for, as previously mentioned, we certainly , 

 owe the fertiUty of the soil, and even the soil itself, to the | 

 never-ceasing activities of this lowly creature. 



When Darwin's attention was drawn to the apparently 

 inexphcable change in the surface condition of certain 

 lands near his home the great naturahst began those 

 patient and laborious researches which eventually gave 

 us his invaluable writings upon vegetable moulds and 

 placed the common, often despised, garden worm high 

 up in the scale of creatures that are of inestimable benefit 

 to mankind. 



I have known amateiu-s who thought they were doing 

 themselves good service by destroying worms, arguing 

 that they eat away the roots of plants and are therefore 

 injurious animals. This is an entirely eri'oneous notion. 

 I do not say that worms cannot or never injure roots 

 on occasion, especially if they be confined by accident 

 in a small space, say in a flower-pot or window-box. 

 Indeed worms are omnivorous, most things that come 

 in their way are acceptable, including roots and fibres. 

 But they are more commonly addicted to the chewdng 

 up of odd leaves lying about on the surface, consuming 



