AN OCEAN GARDEN.

NATURE READERS
SEASIDE AND WAYSIDE
No. 2

BY

JULIA McNAIR WRIGHT

So he wandered away and away

With Nature, that dear old nurse,

Who sang to him, night and day,

The songs of the universe.

—Longfellow, Birthday Poem for Agassiz.

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO

SEASIDE AND WAYSIDE NATURE READERS.

By JULIA McNAIR WRIGHT.

Seaside and Wayside Nature Reader, No. 1.

Describes Crabs, Wasps, Spiders, Bees, and some Univalve Mollusks.

Seaside and Wayside Nature Reader, No. 2.

Describes Ants, Flies, Earthworms, Beetles, Barnacles, and Star-fish.

Seaside and Wayside Nature Reader, No. 3.

Has chapters on Plant-life, Grasshoppers, Butterflies, and Birds.

Seaside and Wayside Nature Reader, No. 4.

Has chapters on Geology, Astronomy, World-life, etc.

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS.

Copyright, 1888 and 1901,
By JULIA McNAIR WRIGHT.

PREFACE.

To the Boys and Girls:—

In this book we shall wander together a little farther, by the seaside and by the wayside. Sometimes we shall walk on the breezy hills; sometimes in the low, marshy places, where ferns and rushes grow.

Sometimes we shall stroll along the wayside path, where the wild-flowers and grasses are woven into a wreath.

Sometimes we shall go to the hard, white sand, where the ocean waves roll to our feet, and bring us shells and curious treasure from the sea. Again, we shall go down to the still ponds, where lilies float on the water and dragon-flies swim in the air.

Wherever we go, let us keep our eyes open and our minds awake to the lessons of Nature. Then we shall be able to learn what beauty and wisdom lie hid, even in such humble things as flies and worms. We shall find much to delight us in beetles; and be as happy as kings while we search out the secrets of airy hunters and marvellous little fishes.

J. M. N. W.

CONTENTS.

SEASIDE AND WAYSIDE.

LESSON I.

A LOOK AT AN ANT.

You have been told[1] that an insect is a living creature with a body made in rings, and divided into three parts. Most insects have six legs, four wings, and two feelers.

The Wasp.

There is a great Order of insects which we shall call the hook-wing family.

The wasp, the bee, the saw-fly, and ant belong to this family. They are the chief of all the insects. They can do many strange and curious things.

You will know insects of this great family by their wings. The front wings are larger than the back ones. They fold back over them when at rest.

In flight the upper wings hook fast to the lower.[2]

The Bee.

If you look carefully at some kinds of insects, you will soon think I have told you what is not quite true. Why will you think that? You will say to me, “The fly has two wings, and not four.” “The ant has no wings at all.”

Ah, but wait until you study about ants and flies, and see what you will think then.

The mouth of all the hook-wing insects has two jaws for cutting or for carrying things. The mouth is nearly as wide as the head.

The Fly.

Above the mouth are two knobs. These knobs are two big eyes, one on each side of the head. Between the two big eyes they have some little ones, on the top of the head.

You see insects are as well supplied with eyes as crabs are with legs.

The back part of the body of many insects is made fast to the middle part by a small joint, or thread. That is because these insects need to bend, or even double up, in some of their work.

The Hook-wing Order is divided into two great kinds.

The Ant.

The insects of one kind carry a little saw. The others carry a sword. The sword is a sting. The saw is to cut up leaves and wood to make nice soft nests or houses for the eggs. The sword is to fight with, or to kill things for food. Among the saw-carriers is the fine, long fly, called a saw-fly. Bees, ants, wasps, and others carry the sting.

Get one of these insects, and you will see all the parts of which I have told you. Let us first take an ant to look at.

The head of an ant seems very large for its body, and the eyes seem very large for the head. They look as if they would be heavy for the little ant to carry.

On the under part of the body which is next the head are set the six legs. These legs and the feet have joints.

On the upper side of this same second part of the body are set the wings. There are four wings, two large and two small ones. The upper pair are larger than the lower ones.

The third or back part of an ant’s body is made of six rings. On the tip or pointed end of this hind part is the sting.

Now I hear you cry out, “O, my ant has no wings!” Well, let me tell you a secret. The wings of your ant have been cut off, or unhooked, as you shall hear by and by.

There are many families of ants. Each has its own name and its own ways. All ants are very wise in their actions. I shall tell you many strange things about them. Ants have always been called “the wise insects.” Would you not like to learn about their homes, their children, and their way of life?

Before you study the ants in any book, I wish you would go out into your garden or into the fields. Find an ant-hill, and sit or lie by it for an hour or so. Take some sugar or bits of cake to feed the ants. Find out for yourselves all that you can about them. Facts that you learn in this way will be worth very much to you. Be careful and do not disturb the hill or alarm the ants.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Seaside and Wayside, First Book.

[2] See First Book, page 36.

LESSON II.

THE LIFE OF AN ANT.

In ant-hills we find drone ants, queen ants, and worker ants. The drone ants have no sting and do no work. Their bodies are longer and more slim than those of queens. The drone ants have wings.

A House in a Hill.

The queen ants also have wings. They have stings, and their bodies are round and dark.

The workers are smaller than queens and drones. They are also darker, and have no wings and no stings. Workers are of two sizes, large and small. They are the builders, nurses, soldiers, and servants of the others.

In an ant-hill there may be many queens at one time. Often the ant-queens work. They are both mothers and queens. They will also act as soldiers. The queen ant is not like the queen bee, who will allow no other queen to live near her. I think mother ant a better term than queen ant.

The word “queen” may make you think that this ant rules the rest. That is not so. Ants have no leader and no ruler. Each ant seems to act as it pleases.

The chief work of the queen ant is to lay eggs. In a short time, out of each egg comes a lively, hungry, little baby ant. It is called a larva. A larva is like a small white worm.

This little being needs to be washed, fed, kept warm and dry, and taken into the air and sun. It must be cared for, very much as the baby in your home is cared for.

The workers, who act as nurses, are very kind to the young larvæ.[3] How do they wash these little things? They lick them all over, as the cat licks the kitten. They use such care that they keep them nearly as white as snow.

The nurses feed the baby ants four or five times each day. The nurses prepare the food in their crops, to make it soft and fit for the little ants.

The nurses stroke and smooth the larva baby. It seems as if they patted and petted it. When the weather is cold, they keep the larvæ in-doors. When it is warm and dry, they hurry to carry them up to the top of the hill. They place them there to bask in the sun. If any rain comes, or the hill is broken, the nurses run to carry the babies to a safe place.

When the larva is full grown, it spins around itself a little fine net, which wraps it all up. When people see these white bundles in the ant-hills, they call them “ant-eggs.” They are not eggs. They are pupa-cases. In them the baby ants are getting ready to come out, with legs and wings, as full-grown ants.

The pupa-cases are of several sizes. The largest ones are for queens and drones. The next size holds large workers; the smallest cases hold the smallest workers.

There are often in the hills very wee ants called dwarf ants. When you study more about ants in other books, you can learn about the dwarfs.

After the ants have been in the little cases some time, they are ready to come out. The nurse ants help them to get free.

Many hundreds come out of the cases. They crowd the old home so full that they can scarcely find room to move about.

Then they see the light shine in at the little gates on the top of the hill. They feel the warmth of the sun. They crawl out.

They push upon each other. The hill is not wide and high enough for so many uncles and cousins and sisters and brothers. They act like great crowds in the streets at a big parade, each one struggles for his own place.

Young ants, like young people, wish to set up for themselves in new homes. They spread their fine wings. Off they fly! Since there is not room in the old hill they will build a new one.

They swarm as the bees do. As they rise high from the earth, they drift off on the wind. Very many of them tire out and die, or are blown into the water, and are drowned. A few live and settle on places fit for a new ant-hill.

It is the mother or queen ant who chooses the new home. When she has found the right place, what do you think she does? She takes off her wings, as she does not care to fly any more.

The ant does not tear off her wings. She unhooks them, and lets them fall away, and does not seem to miss them.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] When we mean only one we say larva; when we mean more than one we say larvæ.

LESSON III.

THE ANT’S HOME.

Ants live in nests, made in the earth. We call them ant-hills, from the shape of the part that is above ground. It is the queen ant who begins to build the ant-hill.

The New Home.

Like the mother wasp, the ant works on her nest until enough ants grow up to do all the work. After that, like the queen bee, she does no work. The work ants will not allow her to go from home.[4]

Sappers and Miners.

When the ant finds a place for her home, how does she take off her wings? They would be in her way while she worked. She presses the edge of a wing upon the ground and so pushes it up and loosens the hook, just as you unhook a dress. Then she begins to dig. She acts at first much as your dog does when he digs after a chipmunk or a rabbit.

The ant lays her big head close to the ground. With her fore-feet she digs up the soil, and tosses it back between her hind legs. She digs as her cousin, Mrs. Wasp, digs.

Sappers and Miners.

She keeps waving her little feelers, as if to find out the kind of soil. Soon she has a hole deep enough to cover her body. It is too deep for her to throw out the dirt with her feet. Now she uses her feet, and her jaws, also, to dig with.

Where the soil is sandy, she takes it out, grain by grain. At first, she must back out of her hole. Soon her hall-way is so wide that she can turn about after she has backed a few steps.

Ants are very kind to each other in their work. If they push or tread on each other in their haste, they never fight about it.

The ants know how to work and how to rest. After a little hard work they stop, clean their bodies, take some food, and sleep.

As the making of the hall goes on, the ants bite off with their jaws bits of dirt, and roll them up with their feet. They soon use the hind part of the body to press and push the earth into a firm ball. These balls are carried out and laid by the door. By degrees the balls form the “ant-hill.”

When the hall is two or three inches long, they make a room. Then they make more halls and more rooms. The rooms are for eggs, for larvæ, for pupæ,[5] and for food.

People who have studied much about ants have had them build nests in glass jars. Thus they have been able to see how they work.

To make a room, the ants often have to stand on their hind legs, and bite the earth off, as they reach up their heads. Sometimes the ant lies on its side, to clean off or smooth the side wall. They have been seen at work, lying on their backs, as men do in mines.

The jaws of the ant have tiny teeth. In old work ants the teeth are often quite worn off. The feet and jaws of the ant are well made for digging. The feet have small hairs. By the aid of these the ants can run up a piece of glass, or hang on a wall, as you would say, “upside down.”

An ant-hill is made of very many little halls and rooms. Some open into each other; some do not. The rooms are bedrooms, nurseries, pantries, and dining rooms. Many of the rooms are shaped like a horseshoe. Some are round.

The ants press and knead the floors and walls to make them hard and smooth. Sometimes they line them with a sticky soil, like paste, to keep the earth from falling in.

Some ants seem to make a kind of glue, or varnish, with which they line their walls.

FOOTNOTES:

[4] For Lessons on Bees and Wasps, see First Book.

[5] Pupa is used when we speak of one, pupæ when we mean more than one.

LESSON IV.

THE ANTS AT HOME.

We have taken a look at the ants and have seen how the hill is made. Let us now see how the ants live in their hill-home.

When we go to visit them, we shall find ants running all about the hill and in the halls. These are the work ants. Some seem to stand on the hill to watch lest any danger may come near.

When the drone ants and the queens are young, the work ants let them go out and fly. When they go out, the drones do not often come back. They get lost or die.

The young queens come back, except those who go off to make new hills. But when the young queen settles down in life, to her work of laying eggs, the workers do not let her leave the hill any more.

How do they keep her in? If she has not taken off her pretty wings, they take them off and throw them away! If she tries to walk off, a worker picks her up in its jaws and carries her back.

The ants are kind to their queen. They feed her and pet her, and she becomes very lazy. She does not even care to lay her eggs in a nice clean place.

The idle queen drops her eggs anywhere. The kind worker ants pick them up, and take them to a soft bedroom.

When there are too many young queens in one hill, they do not have a war, as the bees do. The workers settle the trouble, by taking off the wings of some of the young queens, and turning them into work ants. This is done before the queens begin to lay eggs.

New-born ants and queens, who do not go out into the sunshine, are of a light color. The other ants are dark.

In cold, wet weather the ants stay at home. If a rain comes up when they are out, they hurry back. Early in the day, and late in the afternoon, they all seem to be very busy. In the hot hours of the day they stay in the hill and rest.

In very hot lands the ants stir about all winter. Such ants lay up stores of food. You shall hear of them by and by. In cooler lands, during winter, the ants are asleep, or, as we say, are torpid.

The young swarms usually go out in autumn. I have seen very large swarms in the spring.

Ants like sugar and honey best of all food. They get honey from flowers, and in other ways of which I will soon tell you. Some like seeds which have a sweet taste. For this reason they eat some kinds of grass-seeds, oats, apple-seeds, and such things.

Ants take their food by licking it. Their little rough tongues wear away bits of the seed; they also suck up the oil and juice. They seem to press the food with their jaws.

It has been found out that they know how to moisten their food and make it soft. If you give them dry sugar or cake, they turn it into a kind of paste or honey. Then it is easier to suck or drink it up.

If you put a nest of ants with plenty of earth into a large glass jar, and put some food near by for the ants to eat, they may settle down in the jar, to make a home. If you cover the outside of the jar with thick, dark paper, the ants may build close to the glass. Then, when you take off the paper, you will be able to see the halls and storerooms.

You might put such a jar in a safe place out of doors. Then you would be able to study the ants, as they roam around near by, or do their work inside the jar.

LESSON V.

THE ANTS ON A TRIP.

The round hole in the ant-hill is called the gate. The ants can close it with a bit of stone. Often there are two, three, or even more, gates for one ant-hill. Once I saw a hill with six large gates.

Now I will tell you of a very queer ant-hill. It was made by big black ants, in a little valley between two hills of sand.

Into this valley had blown a very large sheet of thick paper. It had been around a ham and was very greasy. It had lain on the ground, crumpled up, in sun, and snow, and rain, for a year.

By that time it was hard and stiff, and weeds had grown up about it. One day, as I was going by, I saw ants running in and out of the folds of the paper. I took a stick and turned the top fold open like a lid.

It was full of ants and of white pupa-cases. The ants, I think, liked the folds of the paper for halls, and the larger wrinkles for rooms. They had found out how to have a house without much work in making it.

When I opened this paper-hill, they ran in swarms to pick up the white bundles. Poor things! They did not know where to go for safety. So I laid the lid of their house back in its place, and soon they were quiet again.

Now I will tell you how ants move from one house to another. One day I saw by my garden path a line of ants moving all one way. They were black ants.

They went two by two, or one and two, close to each other. Every one had in its jaws a white bundle. I found that they all came from an ant-hill. They came up out of the gate very fast, one by one, each with its bundle.

About two or three inches from this line of ants I saw another line. This line went to the hill, not from it. They went in good order.

They had no bundles when they went into the hill; when they came out, each had a bundle, and joined the other line of ants.

On the March.

I went along with the stream of ants that had the white bundles. I found that they went to a new hill, about thirty feet from the old hill.

There they laid down their bundles, and went back to the old hill to bring more. The bundles lay heaped in a ring all about the gate of the new city.

Out of this gate ran other ants in haste. They caught up the bundles, one by one, and carried them in. In about half an hour they were nearly all taken in, and the ants brought no more. The moving was over.

On the March.

With a long blade of grass, I gently took up a little bundle, I hid it behind a stone, some six inches off. I took three bundles and hid them, lifting them with the tip of the grass-blade.

When all the bundles left at the hill were carried in, the ants went down the gates. But in a minute out came three or four ants. They ran about wildly and searched the ground.

They went in circles and looked over the ground with much care. The circles grew wider. At last one came up behind the stone and found the bundles.

The ant picked up one bundle and ran. Then this ant met the other ants, and, I think, told them the news. For at once the other ants ran up to the stone, and each took up a bundle.

Then they all ran into the hill. Can ants count? That looked as if they knew how many bundles they had. It also looked as if they knew that two ants must go for two bundles.

A man who took bundles from a march in this way thinks that the ants smell the hidden bundles. He says they will not search for them if you hide them in the earth.

LESSON VI.

THE FARMER ANTS.

You have heard of the spider which makes a den in the ground. You know that it puts a trap-door on its den, and plants ferns on the door to hide it.[6]

The Little Farmer.

The spider turns gardener in this way, and all his plants grow well. There is an ant that has a farm, or garden.

This ant lives in warm lands. In this country they are found in Texas, Florida, and in one or two other warm States.

These farmer ants raise grain to eat. The grain is a kind of grass with a large seed. It is called by some “ant-rice.”

There is also a large ant which is fond of the seeds of the sunflower. It is said that the ants plant the sunflowers in a ring around their hill.

The ants have not been seen to carry the seed and plant it. So we may not be quite sure that they do so. Perhaps they build where they see young sunflower plants growing.

It is possible that the ant plants seeds of some kinds. You see there are yet in the world many things left for you to find out. It will be well for you to keep your eyes open.

The farmer ants do not live in a small hill that you could cover with your hand. Their hill, or disk, is sometimes flat, and sometimes high. It is often as large as a large room. It is in the shape of a circle.

An Ant’s Grain Field.

In this circle all weeds and all kinds of grasses are cut down, except the one kind which the ants like. The earth of the disk is kept clean and smooth. Only the seeds of the ant-rice are left to grow.

When the ant-rice is ripe, the ants pick up the seeds as they fall, and take them into the hill to their storerooms.

It is most likely that as the ants let this ant-rice, and nothing else, grow on their hills, it sows itself by its fallen seed.

Still the ants are real farmers, as they keep their land clean, tend and gather the crop, store it up, and eat it.

When the ant-rice is ripe, and the seeds have fallen, the ants cut down the old stems, and take them away. The disk is then clean for the next crop.

The ants will go a long way from their hill to find seeds to bring home. They like to go where horses have fed, for there they find scattered oats. In some lands they carry off much grain from the fields.

An ant in Florida climbs the stalk of the millet and cuts off the seeds. When ants take seeds to their hill, they husk and clean them. They throw bad seeds away.

The ants watch the seeds, and after rains carry them out to dry in the sun. This is because if left wet, they would sprout and grow.

Some ants also cut the seed, so that it will not sprout.

The ants eat the seeds that they gather. They also feed their young with them.

One ant in Florida rolls up into little balls the dust, or pollen,[7] of pine cones, and stores that up to eat.

An ant in New Jersey cuts in pieces the little new pine trees, just as they get above the ground, and carries them to its nest.

Did you ever see the ant which likes sunflower seeds to eat? It is a large ant, and when it has climbed to the disk of the sunflower, it pulls out one of the ripe seeds and carries it away.

When people keep a nest of ants in order to watch their ways, they feed them with sugar, oats, apple-seeds, and wheat.

How does the ant eat the hard grain? Its tongue is like a file, or something like that of the little shell-fish of which I told you.[8] The ant can rasp, file, and press the grain, so it can get at and lick up the oil and juice.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] See First Book, page 82.

[7] See Third Book.

[8] See First Book, page 86.

LESSON VII.

ANTS AND THEIR TRADES.

Since you know that bees, ants, and wasps[9] all belong to the same great family of living creatures, you will not wonder that many of their ways are alike.

You know there are wasps and bees that live alone. You have read how, in the spring, Mrs. Social Wasp builds her home and raises a brood of babies.

These, as soon as full-grown, begin to build more rooms and nurse the next babies. Mrs. Ant does as Mrs. Wasp does.

Mrs. Ant begins a new hill, and as her children grow they help her. But Mrs. Ant does not often begin her hill in the spring. She chooses the early fall to begin work.

As the eggs change into working ants, Mrs. Ant gets plenty of help in her work.

You have seen bees swarm, and hang in a bunch, or curtain. Ants also cling together and form balls. But this is for warmth or safety. It is called “snugging.” In some lands, in times of flood, ants form balls as large as your play ball. Thus they can float on the water, and do not drown.

As Mrs. Wasp makes paper, so Mrs. Ant can make a thin paper, for her nest. But it is poor paper, not so good as Mrs. Wasp makes. Mrs. Wasp is the chief of the paper-makers.

I told you how one Mrs. Bee cuts leaves to line her nest. So one Mrs. Ant does. With cut leaves she lines a neat little nest. As the spider makes a fine spun ball to put her babies in, there is an ant that makes a woolly nest.

You have read of the Tower Spider, that builds a neat tower of sticks, straw, and grass over her nest. There is an ant that thatches its hill in much the same way.

There is a brown ant that is a mason. She makes her nest of little balls of mud, laid up like bricks in a wall.

Then there is a carpenter ant, as there is a carpenter bee. These carpenters cut their way into trees and logs. These ants hollow out the inside of a tree, or beam, until it is ready to fall to pieces. In this way they do much harm.

Besides their other trades, the ants know the trade of war. There are soldier ants. Ants are mild and kind to each other while at work. But they are brave, and have armies for war.

It is odd to see how much ant ways and ant soldiers are like human ways and human soldiers.

The ants make war to get slaves, or servants. I will tell you more of that in the next lesson. They also make war to get cows, as you will hear by and by. They seem to have some other reasons for war.

When the ant army marches, it keeps in line and order. It seems to have captains to rule and lead it. Scouts go before to seek out the way.

The ant-hill has some soldiers for sentries, to see that no danger comes near. When a work ant gets into trouble, it will run to a soldier for help.

The soldier ants do not appear to be cross. They have very large heads, as if they wore big hats. Some of them have smooth heads, and some hairy heads. They eat much and love to sleep.

The soldier ants do not do much work. They rouse up only for a battle. In an ant-hill, the soldiers are larger, and often more in number, than the other ants.

The workers are the smallest ants in a hill. There are fewer queens than any other kind, except after most of the drone ants go off and die. At that time there are very few drones.

In a battle, two ants will often cling to each other by their jaws, until both die. The usual way in which an ant soldier kills a foe is by cutting off the head.

Sometimes the battle ends without any killing. At other times the ants are very fierce, and large numbers are cut to pieces.

When strange ants get into a hill, sometimes they are driven out; sometimes they are killed; sometimes they are treated kindly.

I put a black ant into the gate of a city of brown ants. You should have seen how they drove him out! He ran as if he were wild with fear. Three or four brown ants came after him to the edge of their hill.

But though some strange ants are cast out so fiercely, there are two or three kinds of beetles which go into ant-hills and live with the ants. The ants do not harm them in any way. You shall hear about that when we have some lessons about beetles.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] For Lessons on Wasps, Bees, and Spiders, see First Book.

LESSON VIII.

THE SLAVE ANTS.

The Parasol Ants.

Now I must tell you about the slave ants and their owners. The chief family of the slave-making ants is called “The Shining,” for its body shines with a gloss like varnish.

The slave-making ants and their slaves are found in many parts of the world. The masters are of a light or red color, with a bright gloss. The slave ants are dark or black.

In nests where slaves are held the masters never do any work. They make war and steal slaves, or slave babies. The slave ants do all the work. If a war rises, they also fight for the hill and their owners.

The army of the slave makers will march to the hill of a tribe of ants which they wish to seize for slaves. They carry off the pupa-cases, where the little new ants are getting legs and wings.

These baby ants are taken to the hill of the owners and brought up with their own young. No slave-ant eggs are laid in a hill, for the queens lay all the eggs, and the queens are not slaves. The slaves are stolen when they are eggs, or larvæ.

The owners seem to be very kind to their little slaves, and as the slaves grow up and fill the hill they seem to do very much as they please.

The slaves build new hills and take their owners to live in the new home. If a mistress ant wishes to wander off her hill, her slaves drag her back. If she does not wish to move to her new home, her slaves carry her off, all the same.

The slave-owning ants walk about their hill in an idle way. If war comes, then they fight bravely.

The owners do not build the house, nor nurse their babies, nor feed themselves. Often they do not even clean their own bodies. They leave all these duties to the slaves. The slaves feed their owners, and brush and clean them, as a servant cleans his master’s coat. When the ants are to make a move, the slaves pick up their masters, and carry them away.

How can they do that? The ants carry all burdens in their jaws. The slave and the master lock their jaws, the owner curls up the back of her body, and the slave carries her off.

The grip of an ant’s jaw is very strong. She can carry things much larger than her own body.

There is an ant which uses the pine needles for food. She carries the bits of pine laid over her back much as a man carries a gun. There is a little groove in this ant’s head, where the bits of pine rest. I have seen very large hills covered with carefully cut bits of pine needles. I think they have been sucked dry and then cast out.

There is an ant called the “parasol ant,” because it cuts off tiny bits of leaf, and carries them along. Each ant holds a piece of leaf over its head, like a parasol.

An army of this kind on the march looks very funny. These ants line their nests with bits of leaf, to keep the dirt from falling in.

These parasol ants are very large. Their nests cover a large space. The bits of leaf are cut about the size of a dime. The ants carry them in their jaws, each piece by a little end left for a stem.

We have some parasol ants in this country, in Florida and Texas, and there are many of them in South America.

LESSON IX.

WONDER ANTS.

You may perhaps read of what are called “Termites,” or White Ants. You must not think that these are true ants, for they are not. They belong to another Order of insects. They have four wings all of the same size. But true ants have one pair of wings smaller than the other.

The white ants live in the ground and also in trees. They do much harm by gnawing wood and trees. They swarm into houses, and eat the tables and chairs and such things. They eat all kinds of food. They are much like real ants in their ways. There are many of them in our country.

Now you must hear about the ants that keep cows. I have told you that ants like honey. They take all their food by lapping and sucking it. They suck honey from flowers.

If you look at the plants in the garden or house, you may see on the leaves some very small green things, that seem to eat the leaves. Your mother will tell you these are “plant lice,” and that they spoil her plants.

The name of this little insect is Aphis. That is a very pretty name. The aphis is very small, and is often of the color of the leaf it feeds on.

This wee thing can make honey in its body much as bees do. But the aphis does not store up the honey; it drops it on the leaf as it feeds. This is called “honey dew.”

The ants eat the honey dew from the leaves, and they know that it comes from the aphis. They stroke and tap the aphis with their feelers, so that more dew will be let fall.

Have you seen the milkmaid go from cow to cow, and fill her pail with milk? So the ants go from one aphis to another, until they get all the honey they want.

The ants can carry home this honey, and give it to other ants. The nurse ants will carry it to the baby ants. The workers take it to the queens, owners, and soldiers.

The aphis is called the “ant’s cow.” A hill of ants will seem to own a herd of these wee green cows. They go to them on their leaf, and get the honey. They know and claim their own cows. It is just like having a drove of cows in pasture, as the farmer does.

You know that people often keep cows in stables and feed them there. The ant has this way also. There is a kind of aphis that loves the dark and feeds on roots. Some ants keep a herd of these, hidden in the ground. They pet, stroke, and clean them to get their honey dew.

Ants have been seen to fight for days over a herd of aphis-cows. One hill of ants had no cows, and they tried to steal the cows that belonged to another hill. After four days the lady that watched them got twenty cows, and gave them to the hill that had none. Then the war ended.

The ants which got the new cows seemed very glad. They licked and petted the cows, and put them in a safe place. They took honey from them and fed the soldiers.

This seems just like a fairy tale. But it is quite true. All these things can be seen if you look out for them. But you must be patient and anxious to learn.

In warm summer days, when your mother tells you that it is too hot to run about much, what will you do? Why not make a tent of an umbrella, placed near an ant-hill, and watch these pretty and curious little creatures?

LESSON X.

THE WAYS OF ANTS.

I have told you that ants like honey and sweets. They will also suck the juices and soft parts of many other kinds of food. Some ants eat nearly everything that can be eaten.

Almost all ants will eat other insects, and suck the eggs or pupæ of other insects. This habit makes ants very useful. Certain worms and bugs that destroy orange trees and cotton plants are killed by ants.

Ants also eat other insects that injure men. If a coat that has these on it is laid near an ant-hill, in an hour or two the ants will have made it quite clean.

You have seen a fly sit and clean her body and wings. She does this by drawing her feet over her head and body. So you have seen the cat clean her fur coat with her paws and tongue. The ant washes or brushes herself in just such a way.

The ant is very neat and clean in her habits. She takes many naps in a day, and after each nap she brushes herself. She brushes herself tidy after work and after taking food.

Queer Capers.

The action of the ant in cleansing herself is much like that of the cat. The ant has on her fore-leg a little comb, shaped like your thumb. With this she strokes and combs all dust and dirt from her body.

If you watch an ant as she dresses herself, you will see that she draws her fore-foot through her mouth. This is to clean the comb and to make it moist, so that it will do its work well.

The ant has also little brushes on her other feet; so you see there is no reason why she should not keep herself very trim and tidy.

Queer Capers.

Ants are very neat about their nests. They carry out all husks of grain and seeds and all dead bodies. They carry these quite off their hill.

I knew of an ant’s nest that had been set on a post in water. It was kept clean by the ants. They soon learned to drop all refuse over into the water. That is as the sailor does, when he tidies his ship.

Ants bury their dead. When an ant dies, some of the other ants pick up the body to carry it off and bury it. They do not like to put dead bodies near their hill. The ants will carry the dead ones round and round, till they find a good place for them.

A lady who spent much time in the study of ants said that the slave-owning ants do not bury the slaves with the masters. They put the dead slaves in one place and the owners in another.

Ants will now and then change their home. They leave an old hill and make a new one. When they do this, if some of the ants do not seem ready to leave the old hill, the others drag them off by force.

Most ants have very good eyes, and can see above ground and under ground. But there is one kind of ant that is blind.

Ants can bite with their sharp jaws. They also have a sting. They seldom use it if they are let alone. Some ants have quite a sharp sting. The sting is on the hind part of the ant’s body. Their sting is made in three parts. There is the sack for poison, the needle which gives the prick, and the case to keep the needle or prickle in. This needle, of a light color, is like a little thorn.

The ant seizes with its jaws the part which it wishes to sting. Then it lifts its body up on the hind legs, and swings its sting part under, so that it can drive the sting into the place held by the jaws. The sting does not do much harm to people, but will no doubt kill ants and other insects.

Ants make also a kind of juice called “ant acid.” They can throw this about when the hill is disturbed. This acid must be pretty strong. It will make a dog sneeze and rub his nose. The ant uses it to keep dogs, mice, beetles, and such things, away from the ant-hill.

I have told you that some ants harm trees and plants by gnawing or cutting them. It is only fair now to tell you that ants help plants to grow. As they creep into flowers for honey, they carry about from flower to flower the dust or pollen which makes new seeds grow. This dust sticks to the ant’s body, and what is taken from one flower is carried to another. Bees also carry pollen.

Thus, you see that the ants help the flowers, which in their turn give food to the ants. But, of course, the ants do not know what they are doing for the flowers.[10] Nor do the bees know that they help the flowers. The bees and ants do not know that pollen sticks to them, to be carried about.

These lessons about the ant contain only a few of the many things that can be said of this insect. I hope you will like the ants well enough to get other books about them, and study and watch the ants for yourselves.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] See Lesson [XIII].

LESSON XI.

MR. WORM AND HIS FAMILY.

One day I saw a boy making a hole in the ground, and he dug out a worm.

I said to the boy, “What can you tell me about worms?”

The boy said, “Worms are long, soft things, alike at both ends. If you cut one in two, each end goes off, and makes a whole new worm. They have no heads and no feet and no feelings, and are no good but for fish-bait.”

The boy thought he knew all about worms. But really he knew very little about them. All that he had told me was wrong.

Worms belong to the great class of ringed, or jointed, animals. These creatures have bodies made in rings or joints.