With reference to the wisdom and foresight of the ant there has been much discussion. Although not expressly stated that the ' meat' which the ant 'prepares' in the summer is for winter use, it is generally agreed that such is the meaning of the passage. The Greeks, Romans, Arabian natural- ists, and Jewish rabbis contirm this opinion. Yet many naturalists and commentators have disputed this fact, and say that the writer adopted a popular error, and that the ant does not store the seeds which it takes in such quantities to its nest as food, but only as a lining to its burrows, or for some other unknown reason. They argue from two considerations — (1) that the ant is carnivorous, and has no use for the seeds which it accumulates in its nest ; (2) that the ant hyhemates, and there- fore does not need food in winter. Both of tliese propositions are partially true and partially false. All ants eat flesh greedily, but they are all passion- ately fond of many things besides. Sir Jolin Lub- bock has shown that ants derive a very important part of their sustenance from the sweet juice secreted by aphides, a product hardly to be called animal food more than honey. In the words of Linnaeus, 'the aphis is the cow of ants.' Other kinds of insects are utilised in the same manner. Many ants keep flocks and herds of aphides. The aphides retain the secretion untU the ants are ready to receive it, and the ants stroke and caress them with their antennre, until they emit the sweet excretion. The ants collect the eggs and larvae of these aphides, store them with their own during the long winter sleep, that they may be hatched in the sprint, and supply them again with their favourite food. Here then, says Lubbock, 'our ants may not perhaps lay up food for the winter, but they do more, for they keep during six months the eggs which will enable them to procure food during the following summer — a case of prudence unexampled in the animal kingdom.' But it is also true that ants eat many articles of purely vegetable food. Those of Palestine and Syria certainly eat all kinds of cake, sweetmeats, more or less fruit, bread, meal, and seeds. In the neighbourhood of every threshing-floor and granary, and of stables, there are always immense numbers of ants, which abstract surprising quantities of grain, and store them in their nests. They often carry the grains many feet or yards away, along well-beaten roads, which cross each other in every direction from the heaps of grain. Similar facts have been observed in the warmer parts of Europe and in India. The Mishna lays down rules in regard to the ownership of grain so stored. Maimonides has discussed the question as to whether it belongs to the owners of the land or to gleaners, deciiling in favour of the latter. The ants, however, difl'er from him, and are of opinion that the store belongs to themselves. I am assured by native peasants, well qualified to know, that the ants eat the grain during the season of non-production. After the first rains, the ants bring out their larvne and the stored grains to be sunned. Indian ants do the same. Many of these grains are more or less gnawed, or the edible parts entirely consumed. It was the opinion of Aldrovandus and others of the ancients, confirmed by the French Academy
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(Addison's Guardian, 156, 157) and of N. Pluche {Nature dvrpl. i. 128), that the ants systematically bit off the head of the grain to prevent its germina- tion. I think it unnecessary to ascribe to the ants BO much intelligence as would be implied in this extraordinary measure, but it is no way improb- able that the head would be the first part attacked, as it is the softest portion of the grain, and the most accessible, being uncovered by the silicious envelope, as well as the sweetest morsel of the whole. Lubbock tells us of a Texan ant that clears disks, 10 or 12 feet in diameter, round the entrance to its nest, to allow certain grains known as ant-rice, and no others, to grow there.
Thus the ants ' are exceeding wise.' Many of their nests also are marvels of construction, some composed of galleries and chambers underground, some built in the form of mounds or huts above the surface. These are grouped in towns, con- nected by surface roads, sometimes arched over at places, and by underground tunnels. No less than 584 species of insects are found in association ^^■ith ants, serving them in various ways, some obvious, others not clear. But that they are tolerated by the ants for reasons known to them- selves is shown by the fact that ants will imme- diately attack and drive out or kill any living creatures which they do not like. Many of the insects furnish some form of food, as in the case of the aphides. Others rid the ants of parasites. Others seem to be congenial to them for reasons yet to be studied.
In addition to these insects, not of their own family, ants make slaves of other ants. This is not done by the capture of adult prisoners, but by raids organised for the purpose of stealing the eggs, larvse, and pupa from the nests of other species. These infant captives are taken to the nests of their abductors, and raised as slaves. These slaves do all or most of the domestic work of their masters, who reserve themselves for the noble art of war.