Many scientists have asserted that, next to Man, Ants have the most
intelligence of any living creature. Charles Darwin said “the Ant’s
brain is one of the most marvelous atoms of matter in the world,
perhaps more so than the brain of Man.”
In the opinion of the present writer the anthropoid apes stand next
to man in intelligence. But it is quite true that in their social
organization and industrial activities Ant “civilization,” in some
respects, approximates human “civilization.”
Ants plant and harvest crops, domesticate animals, have a social
system which includes working slaves and a military caste, a police
force and jails. They perform astonishing feats of engineering. They
have efficiency, initiative, and productivity without profiteering.
Cooperation, individualism and “patriotism” exist side by side in a
real _commonwealth_. There is a division of labor, but no exploitation
of the many for the benefit of the few. All classes share equally in
the benefits of their common toil, if we accept the highly specialized
warrior ants as rendering military service equivalent to the work of
the so-called “slaves.”
Members of the military caste do not work, and are fed by the slave
population. But this is due to high specialization rather than to
imposition or snobbery. The erstwhile working mandibles of the soldier
have gradually become transformed into veritable sabres or bayonets.
They could obtain their own food if they so desired, but they have
become absolutely dependent on the “working class” for their daily
bread.[21] But in return they protect the colony, even at the sacrifice
of their own lives.
Each worker Ant finds its own task, and willingly contributes its
share. There are no slave-drivers. When one shift of workers has become
fatigued, or must stop to partake of food, its place is taken by
another shift of equally skillful workers. No time is lost.
If one of the workers becomes encumbered with dirt, its mates come at
once to its assistance with “first aid,” cleaning the unfortunate one
by brushing and washing. During their mining operations in digging
holes and removing stones, an Ant is often injured, whereupon others
rush to its aid and carry it to a quieter gallery, where it is by no
means neglected.
Above all animals of this planet, Ants know the value of mutual aid,
though co-operation is practised among Insects of many kinds.[22]
Forel points out how it is a common practice among many species of
Ants for one which possesses an abundance of food in its crop to share
it with any of its less fortunate comrades who may apply for it--that
is, with any member of the same nest or colony of nests. Approaching
each other, they exchange a few signals--movements--of the antennæ,
and, says Sir John Lubbock, “if one of them is hungry or thirsty ...
it immediately asks for food.” The well-supplied Ant sets apart its
mandibles, takes the appropriate position, and regurgitates a drop of
half-digested food--a transparent fluid--which is licked up by the
hungry Ant. Forel concluded that Ants possess a divided digestive tube,
the posterior part being for the special use of the individual, the
other, the anterior part, being used chiefly for the benefit of members
of the commune. Any Ant which, possessing a crop full of food, refuses
to feed a needy comrade, is treated as a “criminal” or outcast. During
“war times” such an Ant is treated as a “traitor,” and attacked by its
kinsfolk with greater fury than is exhibited toward the foreign enemies
of the species. On the other hand, if an Ant has fed an Ant belonging
to the enemy species, it will be treated by the kinsfolk of the latter
as a friend.[23]
It is well known that the most convincing evidences of intelligence are
to be found among the social Insects, where mutual aid is “the order
of” every day.
When the able naturalist, Thomas Belt, was superintending a gold
mine in Nicaragua, he kept close watch on the animal life about him,
large and small. He tells us that he once saw a wide column of Ants
attempting to pass along a crumbling, nearly perpendicular slope.
“They would have got very slowly over it, but a number having secured
their hold, and reaching to each other, remained stationary, and over
them the main column passed.
“Another time they were crossing a watercourse along a small twig, not
thicker than a goose-quill. They widened this natural bridge to three
times its width by a number of Ants clinging to it and to each other
on each side, over which the column passed three or four deep. Except
for this expedient they would have had to pass over in single file, and
treble the time would have been consumed.
“Can it not be contended that such Insects are able to determine by
reasoning powers which is the best way of doing a thing, and that their
actions are guided by thought and reflection?”
In 1921, it was discovered that the interior woodwork of the Livestock
Exchange Building in Wichita, Kansas, was being tunneled through
by Ants. Flypaper was placed across their line of march. The Ants
thereupon made sufficient sawdust to cover the sticky flypaper and went
on with their “industry.”
Ants domesticate animals, for the same reason that Man does.
Among other animals thus domesticated are herds of Plant-lice, or
“green-flies,” which are to them the equivalent of our dairy animals.
The Ants’ “cow” (Aphid) secretes a “honey-dew.” In order to increase
the supply of the sweet excretion the Ants gently stroke the Aphids.
When the sap supply for the Aphids fails, the Ants carry their “cows”
to new food plants, and when winter comes on both the adult Plant-lice
and the eggs are carried out of reach of frost into the Ant caverns
and carefully attended until spring, when they are again placed on the
swelling plant-buds.
The presence of certain little Crickets, Beetles, and a certain species
of Caterpillar in the nests of the Termites and the true Ants, who seem
to enjoy their presence, has recently been explained on the ground that
the Ants like the odor of these strange “guests.” It has been noted
that the Beetles give off more “fragrance” upon being caressed by the
Ants. “One species of Ants carries Mites about on the body, feeding
them and caring for them, but apparently deriving no benefit from them.
Evidently Ants are fond of keeping pets!” (Thomson).
Professor Thomson (in the “Outline of Science,” Vol. II) writes
delightedly of the varied activities of Insects, and concerning certain
species he says:
“The Tailor-ants, common in warm countries, make a shelter by drawing
leaves together, and their co-operative hauling is admirable; their
mandibles are their needles, if you like, but they have nothing to sew
with: what does each do but take a larva in its mouth so that the silk
secreted from the offspring serves as thread for the parents?”
Again: “A common Harvesting-ant of South Europe collects seeds of
clover-like plants, lets them begin to sprout so that the tough
envelopes are burst, exposes them in the sun so that the germination
does not go too far, takes them back underground and chews them into
dough, and finally makes this into little biscuits which are dried in
the sun and stored for winter use. Many ‘White Ants’ or Termites grow
mushrooms in extensive, specially constructed beds of chewed wood, and
some of the true Ants show a similar habit.”
That Ants have some means of communicating one with another goes
without saying, but our knowledge of Ant language is still very meager,
despite the long and patient labors of many myrmecologists. Some of
the actions considered to be involved in communication are striking
with the antennæ, butting with the head, opening the jaws, beating the
ground with the abdomen, and the production of sounds by various kinds
of apparatus for stridulation.
“While Ants may not be able to talk about things in their sign
language,” says Professor Holmes, “they apparently express their
different feelings and inclinations in ways which are intelligible to
other Ants. Wasmann has compiled a sort of vocabulary of signs made
by the antennæ--a ‘Wörterbuch der Fühlersprache,’ which is about as
extensive as Mr. Garner’s languages of Apes. According to the vigor
and frequency of the strokes of the antennæ, and the part of the body
stroked, the Ant which is addressed may be importuned for food, warned
of danger, or induced to co-operate with the communicants in various
activities.”