Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/755

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points on its head, which this author thinks to be wanting En the labouring ant. Thefe males are not found in the nefts in all feafons, but only at particular times, and it feems as if their fate was the fame with that of the male bees, which are always killed as foon as the feafon of their impregnating the females is over.

The female ant is larger than the male, and working ants, and her body is much faHer and thicker. This creature alfo has the three lucid fpots on her head as the male has, and her body may very eafily be opened, and then fhews a great num- ber of eggs in regular lines.

The labouring ants are very eafily diftinguilhed by their not having thefe lucid fpecks on the head, that the male and fe- male have. Ray's Hift. Infect, p. 70.

Thefe lucid fpecks described by Swammerdam, feem to be three eyes of the fame fr.ruc~T.ure with thofe of the fpider. It is not peculiar to the ant to have thefe befide the reticulated kind; all the common flies have befide their large reticulated eyes, three of thefe fmall and mining ones, which ufually ftand in a tri- angle on the back part of the head. What feems mcft re- markable, is, that they {hould not be common to all the kinds of ants, but that the labourers mould be without them. Naturalifts relate wonders of the policy and ceconomy of ants, the contrivance of their houfes, their granaries, &c. We are told of cities, focieties of ants, commerce between ants, &c.

Dr. Hook gives us the figure of an ant as reprefented by a microfcope. Microf. Obf. 49. Power, Exper. Phil. Obf. 22. Some writers on the materia medica, pretend to find extraor- dinary medicinal virtues in ants.

Mercury is a mortal poifon to them, and the moil effectual way of deftroying thefe infects. Vid. Mem. of Liter. T. 3. p. 215.

The chemifts draw a (pint of ants. Act. Phyf. Med. Acad. N. C. Vol. 2. Obf. 136.

Mr. Newman has alfo procured an setherial oil from ants. Ants make the principal food of young patridges and pheafants ; befides feveral other kinds of creatures, which prey on this infect. Phil. Tranf. N<\ 28. p. 428.

Zoographers fpeak of an ant bear, called tamandua, in Brafil ; which feeds wholly on ants a. It has a long fharp fnout, a flender tongue, extenfible to a great length. It catches ants by Scratching open their fubterraneous hives, and then thruft- ing its tongue into them, after a while it draws it back into its mouth Ioaden with prey. [ a Grew, Muf. Reg, Societ. p. 1. Sect. 2. c. i.]

The antients had an opinion that ants were a fpecific or anti- dote made ufe of by bears, which they had always recourfe to, when poifoned with mandragaras, &c. Buxtorf. Not. in Ana- toliiFragm. ap^ Fabric. Bibl. Graec. 1. 4. c. 29. p. 317. v. 8. Plin. viti. 27. and Solin. c. 26.

The tarantula or malmignatto of Corfica, by fome called a poifonous fpider, is really of the ant kind. Phi). Tranf. N°. 249. p. 57.

It is alfo a fort of winged ants that compofe the gum Iacca. Lemeri, Tr. des Drog.

The French academy fpeaks of a fort of ants in Surinam which come vifiting in troops once in two or three years, en- ter the houfes, and are readily admitted into all their chefts, &c. a. They exterminate rats, mice and other vermin. But this account is contradicted by M. de Robaix, who, however, relates wonders of the military difcipline, the marches, guards, fcntinels, fortifications, roads, flaves, prifoners, &c. of thefe ants of vifitation b. [ a Hift. Acad. Scien. 1701, p. 19. b Jour. Liter. T. 6. p. 185. feqq.J

Ants are in pofleilion of certain fecrets for the prefervation of their provisions, preventing their corn either from fprouting, or from rotting under ground, which they practife with w re at dexterity, and are not unworthy the attention of the greateft phitofophers. The activity is no lefs remarkable, with which they raniack the neighbourhood around ; than the labour and toil they undergo to bring home the provifion, they have found.

Some fuggelr, that to prevent the fprouting of the corn, the ants cut off all the buds before they lay it up. So that the corn which has lain in their nefts will produce nothing. 'Tis eafy to make the experiment, and plainly difcover, that there is no germ or principle of germination in their corn. Yet tho' the bud were cut off, there remains another difficulty, for the corn under ground would fwell and rot, and thus become un- fit for their nouiifhment. To prevent this, they have a pe- culiar expedient, by which corn is kept as dry in their nelts as in our granaries. This is done by funning it every day. They bring it out of their magazines towards the middle of the day, and fpread it in little heaps en a kind of dry earth pro- vided for that purpofe, about the mouth of their neft. At night they carry it back again to the magazine. It is obfer- vable they never venture their corn out, unlefs in a day that promifes fair weather; in the prognoftics of which, they {hew great fagacity. In fome occaiions, where it has been dangerous for them to expofe their riches in the day time, on account of the birds, particularly in the neighbourhood of

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fome pidgeon- houfe, they have bte ■.

and bring it forth in the nig t, Iprea'j X n the m<-on .. toe* and lock it carefully up in Che morning. V .J. Mem ofLiten T. 3. p. 206, and 208.

They fcout round the country in queft of corn ; fometimes they are difappointed," and find none after long and painful ram hies, at other times they do not like the corn they meet with ; but notwithstanding none of them come home with- out fometbing: one brings a grain of wheat, another a grain of rye or oats, a third, if it can meet with nothing elfe, a particle of dry earth, for beds to lay the corn on. Id. lb; p. 209.

The forecaft of ants in providing againft the winter is a rnif- take. Leewenhoeck is of opinion they do not eat in the winter, but fpend that feafon like dormice, and many other forts of animals, in a (rate of fleep. What confirms this is, that they have been obferved as the cold draws on in autumn* to move very heavily, and in the vintage time, they can hardly ftir at all ; fo that the provifion they make, feems in- tended not for tbemfelves, but for their young. Ants frame their habitations differently; fome have their neft3 in banks, or hillocks, called ant-b'dls, others build inhouf.s* others higher in trees, &c. Some curious obfervers diftin- guifli divers apartments for different ufes, in the nelts of ants. They take fpecial care to guard their nelts againft the wet. Whatever community of goods there be between the ants of the fame neft, they exclude all foreigners belonging to other colonies from any intercouffe.

In fome parts of Siam, which lie open to great inundations, the ants make their fettlements in trees. No nefts are to be feen any where elfe. Id. lb. p. 212.

Ligon mentions a large fort of ants in Barbados, which build their nelts with clay and loam againft a wall or tree, as big as bee-hives, and divided into feveral cells. Hilt, of Barbados, p. 64.

The white ants in Maduras, called by the Indians carfeian, being the ordinary prey of fquirrels, lizards, and feveral other creatures, raife their houfe the height of a man from the ground, which they form of a durable fort of fluff, or mor- tar, put fo well together, that it is almoft impenetrable. The fields are full of thefe banks ; which the countrymen do not demolifh, partly on account of their extreme hardnefs, and partly becaufe they would be repaired again in a few days* Lett. Edif. T. 12. p. 102.

There is a ftrait hole in every ant's neft, about half an inch deep, after which it goes down (loping into a place where rhey have their magazine, which feems to be a different place from that where they reft and eat, they being too neat to lie among their provifions. Mem. of Liter. T. 3. p. 206. Guard. N°* 156.

Over the hole of their neft they lay fome flat ftone, tile, piece of philter, or the like, to cover it from the rain, ore. which Is their great enemy. In a fair day the hole is open ; but when they forefee it will rain, and almoft every night, the cover is drawn over the entrance, with great ingenuity as well as labour, Fifty of thefe little animals, efpecially thofe of the ftronger fort, fur round the ftone, and draw and fhove in concert: the like operation is renewed in the morning, to thruft it back again. Mem. Liter, p. 211. An ant never goes into any other neft but her own ; and if fhe fhould venture to do it, flie would be turned out, and fe- verely punifhed ; if fhe proved refractory, and returned again after this warning, the other ants would tear her to pieces. Even when purfued, they will never fly into another hole for fhelter, except in the laft extremity ; and will even fometimes rather fuffer themfelves to be taken. — They feem not to know what hofpitality is. Mem. of Liter. 1. c. p. 213. feqq. Each kind of ant, Dr. King allures us, inhabit by themfelves in their feveral banks, or hillocks: if a red ant, ex. gr. be put into a black ant's bank, war immediately arifes, the black leize their guefts, and never leave pinching him on the head with their forceps, or claws, till they have killed him on the fpot. After which they drag his dead body out of the verge of the bank. If a black ant be put into a red ant's bank, he feems ftartled at the ftrangenefs of the thing, and prefently feeks for fafety by flight. Phil. Tranf. N°. 23. p. 425. feqq. It has been a vulgar error, that ants, bite ; they have not ftrength enough in their jaws and teeth to penetrate the cuti- cula. But the red fort have a fting in the pofterior part of their bodies, which they thruft out, and plunge into any thing that offends them, by a kind of vibratory motion, which ex- preffes an acrid, corrofive fort of liquor, which palfing thro* the canal of the fting ra,ifes an inflammation. The black ants have no fting. Bibl. Univ. T. II. p. 156, It is faid that there is a white fort frequent in India, which when they have taken pofleflion of a houfe, or a room, there is no getting rid of them, but by means of a black kind, which hunt them out. They eat their way thro J every thing, will even gnaw iron, fdver, &c. unlefs the rufl they raife be rather the effect of their faliva, which is of a difTolving nature, and acts almoft like aqua fortis. Vid. timer, des Drog.

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