In the open : $b intimate studies and appreciations of natureKirkham, Stanton Davis
History
In the open : $b intimate studies and appreciations of nature
Kirkham, Stanton Davis
Natural history -- Outdoor books
Every year the red ants raid the common blacks for the purpose of
making slaves--a most highhanded proceeding. This season I came upon
the invading host marching up the road about ten in the morning of July
28th. The invasion had but lately begun, as the ants were carrying no
pupæ; it was the skirmish line. As the column advanced, frequent and
rapid communication took place between individuals and stragglers who
were coming back. Later, when the raid was well under way, there was
little of this. The nest of the red ants was by the side of a path in
the woods which led out to the wagon road, while the negroes were
domiciled some distance up this lane. Now the column of red ants
followed the path and the road the entire way, in place of going
directly through the bushes, though it doubled the distance, which thus
amounted to some fifty yards.
Red ants were soon pouring out of the various openings in the nest of
the blacks, carrying both pupæ and larvæ, and rarely one passed with a
bunch of small white eggs. Several black queens came out of the nest,
and as they emerged were set upon by red ants, which tried to hold them
by their wings. They managed, however, to throw off their assailants,
and ran under my feet, where they were followed by a score of black
workers, all of whom crowded under the soles of my shoes as I stood on
the loose gravel. At noon I timed the ants and found that, on the
average, forty pupæ and larvæ were carried past a given point every
minute. Two unbroken columns now extended the entire distance between
the nests, one advancing and the other returning.
Occasionally one passed carrying a portion of a black ant, a head and
thorax, or an abdomen. Again, one would appear with a live black,
which, when liberated by me, frantically made her escape. Very young
negroes when carried off were never injured. On one occasion several
red ants were struggling with a black, and among them was a black who
fought against her own friend. This is the only case in which I saw a
black ant help the enemy in this way--a traitor, evidently, but
presumably one whose pupa had been captured the year before and reared
in slavery. Whereas the red ants always came to each other's
assistance, the blacks rarely did so.
By five o'clock the raid was practically over for the day. It ceased as
suddenly as it had begun. Early in the struggle a slender, straggling
column had diverged from the main line, about half way between the
nests. I now found the entire body of ants moving in this new
direction. The one raid over, they had undertaken another upon a colony
of blacks some twenty-five yards distant, and were transporting the
pupæ and larvæ at about the same rate as before. To reach this nest,
the column must cross the wagon road, and here a number were crushed
from time to time by passing vehicles. But the marching army passed by
with the stolen pupæ and paid no heed to their wounded comrades. This
second foray ceased before nightfall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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