Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/259

 Popular Science Monthly

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��Are You Interested in Cellar Farming? Let the Parasol Ant Instruct You

THE accompanying photograph shows the leaf-cutting or parasol ants of tropical America traveling on the branch of a tree to their subterranean home, each ant carrying a leaf in its powerful jaws. These ants are the most conspicuous, abundant and destructive insects of the tribe of fungus-growing ants which inhabit the territory thirty degrees north and south of the equator. On the other hand they are noted agricultural specialists, feeding upon mushroom-like fungus which they grow themselves in their cellars.

There still remains doubt among scien- tists as to what the ants do with the leaves they gather. Some surmise that they use them as food; others that they roof their underground nests with them. But the real use they make of leaves, according to a recent book by Belt, entitled "The Naturalist in Nicaragua," is to make a compost in which a minute species of fungus resembling the mushroom will thrive. On this they feed. In other words. Belt calls the parasol ants mushroom-growers and feeders. They do not confine themselves to leaves, he says, but carry off any vege- table substance they find suitable for the compost.

They are very particular about the ven- tilation of their underground chambers, and they have numerous holes leading from them up to the surface. These they open out or close up, apparently to maintain a regulation of temperature below. If they had had special instructions in underground farming their methods could not be more scientific. They were probably nicknamed parasol ants because of the manner in which they carry the leaves which they gathei*.

���A swarm of bees found out too late that a telephone terminal box is no place for a hive

Even Bees Should Be Careful Where They Locate

IN the illustration above, the object in the upper right-hand corner is a honey- comb. The black spots on it and on the floor below and on the coiled wires are the bees which lost their lives through poor judgment in the choice of a hive.

They chose a terminal box of a telephone company, and as the manager was not in the honey business his principal concern was to get rid of the bees without insulting them. The fumes of bi-sulphate of carbon did the trick.

���The parasol ants carry leaves and other vegetable substances, sometimes several times their size, nicely balanced on their heads so that the entire body is shaded. This suggested the name

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