have obtained the name of ant-eaters, (_Myrmecophaga_). On paying its
accustomed visit to the ant-hill, this animal makes a considerable
disturbance, and then extends its long and tapering tongue on the
ground. The ants, coming out to see what is the matter, unaware of
the nature of the trap laid for them, pass on the tongue in great
numbers, where they are retained by a thick viscous fluid. The
Woodpecker occasionally adopts a similar plan, and thus procures an
abundant repast; but the most ingenious contrivance to entrap ants,
is that practised by a little insect termed the Ant-Lion, (_Myrmeleon
Formicarius_). This insect in its larva state, can walk no other
way than backward; it is therefore evident, that its prey must come
immediately within its reach, since it is unprovided with the means of
advancing to secure it. To effect this, it forms a conical cavity of
about two inches in depth in a loose, dry, sandy soil. It commences
its operations by describing a circle in the sand, it then takes its
station within, and moving in a retrograde direction, shovels up the
sand with its fore-feet on the back part of its head, which is flat and
square, from which, by a sudden jerk, it is projected to the distance
of several inches. As its work proceeds it describes smaller circles
within the first, until they are reduced to almost a mere point. On
its meeting any impediment to its labours, such as small stones, &c.
it places them one by one on its head, and, if possible, jerks them
beyond the mouth of the pit; failing of this, it endeavours to deposit
its load at the entrance of the cavern, by mounting backward with
cautious steps. Its efforts are often unsuccessful, for the instability
of the ground over which it is obliged to pass renders this a task
of extreme difficulty. It does not, however, forego its object, nor
is it at all discouraged by two or three failures, but when every
probability of success is withdrawn, it abandons its employment, and
seeks another situation, where it, with wonderful patience, enters upon
another excavation. Its residence finished, it occupies the lower part,
concealing its body by a coating of sand. Here it quietly remains until
some stray ant, passing this way, and venturing to cross the sides
of the pit, is carried by the sliding sand within the grasp of its
oppressor. It may be that the ant, on perceiving its danger, endeavours
to scramble up the embankment; but our wary friend, unwilling to be
deprived of his long-expected meal, shakes off his usual inactivity,
and by a timely shower of sand, seldom fails of bringing down its
victim. Like most insects that lie in wait for prey, the Ant-Lion is
capable of enduring very long abstinence.--T.
I shall not now describe the kind of chase which ants give to those
insects they find in their journies; the whole of their art being then
limited to their assembling together for the purpose of assailing and
dragging them to the ant-hill. The ants of southern countries, more
warlike than ours, attack little quadrupeds and destroy rats and other
noxious animals, while the beetle and caterpillar are the largest
insects upon which the ants of Europe make war: they will, however,
dissect very neatly lizards, and other dead animals. Ants make their
attack openly; cunning is not in the number of their arms; those of
which they make use, are the same pincers they employ for carrying the
materials of their nests, a sting resembling that of bees, and the
venom which accompanies it, an acid liquor contained in their abdomen,
which produces a slight irritation on the skin. These arms, as before
stated, are only possessed by the females and workers, to whom nature
has confided the several interests of the colony. The males take no
part in its preservation, except in the reproduction of the species.
The females, doubtless too valuable to allow of their exposing their
lives, always make their escape on the slightest danger. The workers
are those only destined to defend their habitation.
Several species are unprovided with a sting, but they supply its place
by biting their enemy and pouring into the wound they inflict with
their teeth, a drop of venom, which renders it exceedingly painful.
They bend, for that purpose, their abdomen, which contains the venomous
liquor, and approach it to the wounded part, at the very same moment
they tear it with their pincers. When their adversaries keep only at a
distance, and they are unable to reach them, they all raise themselves
on their hind feet, and, bringing their abdomen between their legs,
spurt their venom with some degree of force. We see ascend, from the
whole surface of the nest, a thick cloud of formic acid, which exhales
an almost sulphureous odour.
Of all the enemies of the ant, those most dreaded are the ants
themselves; the smallest not the least, since several fasten at once
upon the feet of the largest, drag them on the ground, embarrass their
movements, and thus prevent their escape. One would be astonished at
the fury of these insects in their combats; it would be more easy to
tear away their limbs and cut them in pieces, than compel them to quit
their hold. It is nothing uncommon to see the head of an ant suspended
to the legs or antennæ of some worker, who bears about, in every place,
this pledge of his victory. We also observe, not unfrequently, the ants
dragging after them the entire body of some enemy they had killed some
time before, fastened to their feet in such a way as not to allow of
their disengaging themselves.
Supposing the ants to be of equal size, those furnished with a sting
have an advantage over those who employ only for their defence their
venom and their teeth. The whole of those ants whose peduncle has no
scale, but one or two knots, are provided with a sting; the Red Ants,
which are said to sting more sharply than the rest, possess both these
sorts of arms. In general the ants furnished with a sting are, in our
country, some of the smallest. I know but one species of middle size;
but it is very rare and only inhabits the Alps.
The wars entered into by ants of different size bear no resemblance
to those in which ants engage who come to combat with an equal force.
When the large attack the small, they appear to do it by surprise,
most likely to prevent the latter from fastening upon their legs; they
seize them in the upper part of the body and strangle them immediately
between their pincers. But when the small ants have time to guard
against an attack, they intimate to their companions the danger with
which they are threatened, when the latter arrive in crowds to their
assistance. I have witnessed a battle between the Herculean and the
Sanguine Ants; the Herculean Ants quitted the trunk of the tree in
which they had established their abode, and arrived to the very gates
of the dwelling of the Sanguine Ants; the latter, only half the size
of their adversaries, had the advantage in point of number; they,
however, acted on the defensive. The earth, strewed with the dead
bodies of their compatriots, bore witness they had suffered the
greatest carnage: they, therefore, took the prudent part of fixing
their habitation elsewhere, and with great activity transported to a
distance of fifty feet from the spot, their companions, and the several
objects that interested them. Small detachments of the workers were
posted at little distances from the nest, apparently placed there to
cover the march of the recruits and to preserve the city itself from
any sudden attack. They struck against each other when they met, and
had always their mandibles separated in the attitude of defiance. As
soon as the Herculean Ants approached their camp, the centinels in
front assailed them with fury; they fought at first in single combat.
The Sanguine Ant threw himself upon the Herculean Ant, fastened upon
its head, turned its abdomen against the chest of its adversary or
against the lower part of its mouth, and inundated it with venom. It
sometimes quitted its antagonist with great quickness; more frequently,
however, the Herculean Ant held between its feet its audacious enemy.
The two champions then rolled themselves in the dust and struggled
violently. The advantage was at first in favour of the largest ant;
but its adversary was soon assisted by those of its own party, who
collected around the Herculean Ant and inflicted several deep wounds
with their teeth. The Herculean Ant yielded to numbers; it either
perished the victim of its temerity, or was conducted a prisoner to the
enemy’s camp.[2]
[2] I retained in close captivity in the same box, nearly a month,
about an equal number of Red and Yellow Ants. It would seem that a
general feeling of compassion for their unfortunate imprisonment
had given birth to a suspension of hostilities, and that rankling
animosity had been exchanged for good-will and social order. During
this period I seldom witnessed any affray on the exterior of the nest,
and on breaking it up, the interior gave me no room to suppose it had
been the scene of much contention; but scarcely were they liberated,
scarcely did they feel the fresh breeze passing over them, than their
animosity rekindled, and the field of their liberty became the theatre
of sanguinary combat. For a few moments each party seemed engaged
in discovering a place of retreat, and it was only on returning to
the ruins of their original prison, to bring off the rest of their
companions, that they encountered and waged war upon each other. What
was as singular as unexpected, they fought in pairs, in no one instance
_en masse_; indeed, it only twice happened, although the ground was
strewed with combatants, that a third came to the aid of its companion,
and even then, as if conscious of the unequal contest, one immediately
retired. It was inconceivable with what desperate fury, and with
what determined obstinacy they fastened upon each other. With their
mandibles alone they often succeeded in effecting a complete separation
of the body of their antagonist, of which the ground exhibited many
proofs when I revisited it.--T.
Such are the combats between ants of different size; but if we wish
to behold regular armies, war in all its form, we must visit those
forests in which the Fallow Ants establish their dominion over every
insect in their territory. We shall there see populous and rival
cities, regular roads passing from the ant-hill as so many rays from
a centre, and frequented by an immense number of combatants, wars
between hordes of the same species, for they are naturally enemies and
jealous of the territory which borders their own capital. It is in
these forests, I have witnessed the inhabitants of two large ant-hills
engaged in spirited combat. I cannot pretend to say what occasioned
discord between these republics. They were composed of ants of the same
species, alike in their extent and population, and were situated about
a hundred paces distance from each other. Two empires could not possess
a greater number of combatants.
Let us figure to ourselves this prodigious crowd of insects covering
the ground lying between these two ant-hills, and occupying a space of
two feet in breadth. Both armies met at half-way from their respective
habitations, and there the battle commenced. Thousands of ants took
their station upon the highest ground, and fought in pairs, keeping
firm hold of their antagonists by their mandibles: a considerable
number were engaged in the attack and leading away prisoners. The
latter made several ineffectual efforts to escape, as if aware that,
upon their arrival at the camp they would experience a cruel death.
The scene of warfare occupied a space of about three feet square; a
penetrating odour exhaled from all sides; numbers of dead ants were
seen covered with venom. Those ants composing groups and chains, took
hold of each other’s legs and pincers, and dragged their antagonists
on the ground. These groups formed successively. The fight usually
commenced between two ants, who seized each other by the mandibles,
and raised themselves upon their hind-legs, to allow of their bringing
their abdomen forward, and spurting the venom upon their adversary.
They were frequently so closely wedged together that they fell upon
their sides, and fought a long time, in that situation, in the dust;
they shortly after raised themselves, when each began dragging its
adversary; but when their force was equal, the wrestlers remained
immoveable, and fixed each other to the ground, until a third came to
decide the contest. It more commonly happened that both ants received
assistance at the same time, when the whole four, keeping firm hold of
a foot or antenna, made ineffectual attempts to gain the battle. Some
ants joined the latter, and these were, in their turn, seized by new
arrivals. It was in this way they formed chains of six, eight, or ten
ants, all firmly locked together; the equilibrium was only broken when
several warriors, from the same republic advanced at the same time,
who compelled those that were enchained to let go their hold, when the
single combats again took place. On the approach of night each party
returned gradually to the city, which served it for an asylum. The
ants, which were either killed or led away in captivity, not being
replaced by others, the number of combatants diminished, until their
force was exhausted.
The ants returned to the field of battle before dawn. The groups again
formed; the carnage recommenced with greater fury than on the preceding
evening, and the scene of combat occupied a space of six feet in length
by two in breadth. Success was for a long time doubtful; about mid-day
the contending armies had removed to the distance of a dozen feet from
one of their cities, whence I conclude some ground had been gained.
The ants fought so desperately, that nothing could withdraw them from
their enterprise; they did not even perceive my presence, and although
I remained close to the army, none of them climbed upon my legs; they
seemed absorbed in one object, that of finding an enemy to contend with.
This devotion for their country, is it not astonishing in such little
insects? Can we conceive how nature, has inspired them with such
interest for the colony in which they equally labour? These wars offer
something still more surprising--_the instinct which enables each
ant to know his own party_. How and by what sign do they distinguish
their compatriots, in a contest, in which thousands of individuals
of the same colour, of the same size, of the same odour, and even of
the very same species, meet, attack, or defend themselves, inundate
their adversaries with venom, and lead away prisoners? They march with
defiance; even at the time they are approaching their companions they
keep their mandibles wide asunder. They sometimes attack those of their
own party; but on recognising them, immediately relax their hold. It
often happens that those who are the object of this temporary error
caress their compatriots with their antennæ, and readily appease their
anger. What an idea does not this give us of the bond of union between
these insects, and of the subtlety of their senses.
The common operations of the two colonies were not suspended during
this warfare: the paths, which led to a distance in the forest, were
as much thronged as in a time of peace, and all around the ant-hill
order and tranquillity prevailed, with the exception only of that
side on which the battle was raging. A crowd of these insects were
constantly seen to be setting off for the scene of combat, while others
were returning with their prisoners. This war terminated without any
disastrous results to the two republics; long continued rains shortened
its duration, and our warriors ceased to frequent the road which led to
the camp of the enemy.
I have witnessed many such combats; but I shall not now relate them,
under the fear of fatiguing my readers by too frequent repetition. I
ought, however, to give them an idea of those which take place between
the Fallow Ants and Sanguine Ants, since they differ much in character
from those I have mentioned, approaching nearer the wars in which we
ourselves engage.
The Sanguine Ants, when they are attacked by the Fallow Ants, go and
await the enemy in little troops, at some distance from the nest: they
advance in a body, without separating, and seize all those of their
enemies who venture too far from their camp. These slight skirmishes
are very amusing: the two parties place themselves in ambuscade,
and suddenly attack each other in turns; but when the Sanguine Ants
perceive that the Fallow Ants are advancing in force against them, they
inform those at the ant-hill of the need in which they stand of their
assistance. Immediately, a considerable army leaves the Sanguine city,
advances in a body, and surrounds the enemy. Nothing more, I conceive,
is wanting to prove the existence of a language between these insects.
I have witnessed instances of this kind every day for several weeks.
These combats were constantly renewed between the two ant-hills,
which lay at some distance from each other, but were situated in the
same hedge; so that the paths proceeding from each led to the adverse
territory. Is not this sufficient to excite war between the greatest
empires![3]
[3] In perusing the travels of M. Malouet, in the forests of _Guyana_,
we shall be speedily convinced that ants are not always, even to man,
contemptible enemies. We have reason to be thankful that those of our
own country are so innocent, and that nature has reduced them to such
different dimensions. “I crossed the river,” he says, “with M. de
Prefontaine, for the purpose of visiting the woods. In the midst of a
savannah, extending beyond the visible horizon, I observed a hillock,
which had the appearance of being the work of man. He told me that
it was an ant-hill. ‘What!’ said I, ‘is that immense structure the
work of an insignificant insect?’ He proposed to take me, not to the
ant-hill, where we should have been devoured, but towards the route
of the labourers. In drawing near the wood, we saw several columns of
these insects; some were going to, others returning from, the forest,
carrying pieces of leaves, different seeds, and roots. These Black
Ants were of the largest species; but I had no desire to take a close
survey of them. Their habitation, to which I approached within forty
paces, appeared to be from fifteen to twenty feet high, and from thirty
to forty broad; its form was that of a pyramid, truncated at about
one-third of its height. From M. de Prefontaine, I learned, that when
a native had the misfortune to meet one of these dreaded fortresses
in turning up the earth, he was obliged to abandon his establishment,
provided he could not lay a regular siege to it. This circumstance
occurred to him, on his first encampment at _Kouron_; he then encamped
at a little distance, but shortly perceived a hillock like that before
us. He dug a circular trench, and filled it with a large quantity of
dry wood, and when he had fired it in several places, he attacked the
ant-hill with cannon. The shaking of the earth, and the bursting forth
of the flames, left the enemy no means of escape, for they were obliged
to traverse, in their retreat, the trench filled with matter in a state
of combustion,” &c. &c.--A.
I shall now offer a few observations, to which I shall give no definite
term, since they relate to scenes that I dare not qualify with the
title _gymnastic_, although they bear a close resemblance to scenes of
that kind. It is to the Fallow Ants I am indebted for these details;
they have already furnished me with several remarkable particulars. Do
they not owe to the immense population of their nest those differences
which their industry and character present; it is at least highly
probable, but I will not positively affirm it. I visited, one day,
one of their ant-hills, exposed to the sun and sheltered from the
north; the ants were heaped one upon another in great numbers, and
appeared to enjoy the temperature on the surface of the nest. None of
them were at work. This immense multitude of insects presented the
appearance of a liquid in the state of ebullition, upon which the eye
had some difficulty in resting; but when I examined the conduct of
each ant, I saw them approach each other, moving their antennæ with
astonishing rapidity. With slight movements of their fore-feet they
patted the lateral parts of the head of the other ants. After these
first gestures, which resembled caresses, they were observed to raise
themselves upon their hind-legs by pairs, struggle together, seize
each other by a mandible, foot, or antenna, and then immediately relax
their hold to re-commence the attack. They fastened on the thorax or
abdomen, embraced and overthrew each other, then raised themselves
by turns, taking their revenge without producing any mischief. They
did not spurt forth their venom, as in their combats, nor retain
their adversary with that obstinacy which we observe in their serious
quarrels. They presently abandoned the ants they had seized, and
endeavoured to lay hold of others. I saw some who were so eager in
these exercises, that they pursued successively several workers, and
struggled with them a few moments, the combat only terminating, when
the least animated, having overthrown his antagonist, succeeded in
escaping and hiding in one of the galleries.
I frequently visited this ant-hill, which almost always presented me
the same spectacle: sometimes this disposition was general; groups of
ants were seen here and there struggling together; but I never saw any
quit the ant-hill wounded or maimed.
The inhabitants of other ant-hills but rarely engage in this amusement,
half-warlike, half-social. If the manners, however, of ants of the same
species are essentially alike, their habitudes offer very distinct
shades of difference in the several colonies. These republics, from
having no communication with each other, contract particular habits in
the different circumstances under which they may be placed: abundance
or scarcity, the proximity or distance from whence the ants draw their
materials, the labours to which they are called, the neighbourhood of
an antagonist ant-hill, or other accidental circumstances, considerably
influence their actions. The colony of which we are speaking was one of
those remarkable for its harmony; the insects of which it was composed
did not cease offering their companions nourishment, caressing them
with their antennæ, and carrying them from place to place. I am induced
to believe this friendly disposition originated from the situation
of the ant-hill, which was contiguous to the source whence they
obtained their food, inclosed between a ditch full of water and a very
thick hedge, which preserved them from the visits of strange ants and
other enemies. What contributes to strengthen me in this opinion is,
that I have observed the same exercises in my glazed ant-hill, when
the ants were abundantly supplied with nourishment, when they were
perfectly reconciled to their abode, and under the influence of a mild
temperature.
Other ant-hills presented me some particulars a little different from
the above. I often saw on the surface of the nest workers that appeared
affected with vertigo; they made several evolutions in the sun with
convulsive movements, opening their pincers and running in every
direction over the ant-hills. Shortly after, some, affected in the like
manner, began to frisk about, and then entered the first gallery they
found on their passage. These ants deranged every thing about them;
but this disposition continued only two or three minutes, and was, I
think, occasioned by the heat of the sun, never having observed it to
take place but when the sun was high in the horizon. Several of those
I noticed, after having whirled round some moments, fastened on the
other ants by a leg or antenna, then relaxed their hold to run after
others; sometimes carrying them off, but doing them no injury. In one
place two ants appeared to be gambolling about a stalk of grass; they
turned alternately to avoid or seize each other, which brought to my
recollection the sport and the feigned combats of young dogs, when they
rise on their hind-legs, attempting to bite, overthrow, and seize each
other, without once closing their teeth.