THE ANTS 



THESE little creatures are probably the most 

 intelligent of all the insects and yet at times 

 they seem to wander about almost aimlessly. 

 A worker may be found with an insect or some- 

 thing which it is eagerly dragging along and 

 drops probably from fear. It appears anxious 

 to regain its hold of it, but goes about in all sorts 

 of wrong directions before it again finds it, it 

 may be to make sure its enemy is clear away 

 before it resumes operations, but the effect to 

 the ordinary onlooker is one of sheer incapacity 

 at the same time the wonderful habits of the 

 tribe, the way in which they keep plant lice 

 for their larvae, their methods of carrying each 

 other, their nest-building, and the slave-making 

 instincts of some of the species, show an intelli- 

 gence surpassed by no other family of insects. 

 Their nests are formed in very various ways : 

 the same species even will sometimes nest under 

 a stone and sometimes make ant hills; some 



31 



