The common red ant (Myrmica rubra) shelters and feeds a curious kind of blind mite, which lives on the bodies of its hosts. By stroking its entertainers with its legs it makes known its need of nutriment, and such requests are never refused. Not impossibly some return may be made for these good offices.
One of the Indian ants (Sima rufo-nigra) lives on the bark of trees with a species of wasp (Rhinopsis ruficornis) and a kind of spider (Salticus), both of which closely resemble it in appearance. The three associates appear to be good friends, while wasp and ant sometimes engage in a friendly wrestle.
AN ANT AT ITS MORNING TOILET
A remarkable observation made by a student of insect life while examining ants under the microscope.
HOW ANTS COMMUNICATE WITH
ONE ANOTHER
The complex life of an ants’ nest is a striking instance of order among apparent disorder. Each of the innumerable individuals discharges its special tasks without hesitation, unless unusual circumstances prove a hindrance. It would seem, therefore, that there must be some means by which any one can convey information to others. When two meet they frequently stroke one another with their feelers, and this perhaps serves the purpose of language.
THEIR REMARKABLE HABITS
OF CLEANLINESS
Some wonderful facts are recorded concerning matters of personal cleanliness among ants, and has shown incidentally that these insects perform amazing feats of acrobatic skill without the least effort, and quite as matters of course. For example, an ant will often hang from a grass stem by the claws of one leg, while it combs its antennæ, cleanses its five remaining feet, or bends its head upwards to lick its abdomen and furbish the joints of its armor. Indeed, thanks partly to the wonderful flexibility of its “waist,” and still more to the tenacity of its muscles, an ant is able to assume and maintain almost any position that the need or fancy of the moment may prompt.
Many stingless ants, when fighting, first bite their adversary with their jaws, and then [240] bringing the tip of the abdomen beneath the body, squirt formic acid into the wound.