The Dead Ant Queen

The waste of life in aa ordinary forInicary is great. Multitudes are continually perishing beneath the careless tread of human beiugs and cattle. A man or woman can hardly walk the garden without destroying many lives of busy creaturea intent upon errands of their daily life. Birds piek them up as a delicate morsel. Toads and serpents are fond of a menu of living ants, and other creatures prey upon them. Therefore it becomes necessary to recruit the commnnity day by day, and the number of recruits must exceed the daily waste if the social power of the family is not to be diminished. No wonder, theref ore, that the fortila queen is a person of such consequence and is so carefully guarded. But it may be asked, Is she able to meet such demands upon her fecuudity? Quite so. The number of eggs which an ordinary queen can lay in any one season amounts to many thousands, and the ! possible capacity of a single queen no doubt reaches scores of thousands of fertile eggs. I was permitted to note the touching interest which focuses upon the queen of a formicary while visiting Sir John Lubbock one summer morning at his home in London. This distinguished naturalist had succeeded in preserving two ant queens to a marvelous age, one of these having reached the vast antiquity of 14 years. This longevity was due to the careful protection extended by Sir John and his attendants, for it is true of emmet herds as well as of domestic animáis that they thrive uuder human protection. As I greeted Sir John on the morning referred to, in response toan invitation to breakf ast with him and some of his friends, I inquired at once about the health of his ancient queen "Alas, doctor!" he cried, "Ihavo sad news to teil you. My old queen is dead!" "Dead!" I exclaimed. "This is sad news indeed. When did she die?' ' "Only last night, " was the response, "and I have not yet told my wife about it, for I dare say she will feel as badly over the loss as myself. ' ' Perhaps this may seem trivial to the ordinary lay mind, but to Sir John Lubbock and the writer it was a serious matter, for it ended one of the most interesting experiments as to the pro longed life of invertebrate creatures that the world has ever known. "May I see the queen?" I asked. "Yes; she is% just here in the adjoiniir:: room. " Turning aside from the waiting comp:i .y of distinguished persons who were to sit down with us at breakfast, we went to see the dead queen. She lay in one of the chambers, as I have described them, resting on her back, with her six legs turned upward and bent in the rigor of death. A crowd of courtiers surrounded her. Some were licking her, as though in loving care of her toilet. One would nip an antenna and another a leg, and by various other solicitationa sought to arouse her. Alas, there was no response! Itwas curious and touching as well to watch their methods. "They have not yet accepted the f act," said Sir John, "that their queen is really dead. Indeed I doubt if they are fully persuaded thereof. They have been surroundiug her thus and trying to get some response from her ever sinee she died. ' ' So we left the royal deathroom. Whether this interesting creature was taken by its kindly guardián and placed i in a collector's bottle, or upon an entomological pin, or left for interment at the hands of her devoted courtiers, I never learned. But no one who witnessed that scène could doubt the strong interest and affection with which the venerable queen ant was regarded by her subjects. Speaking of interment, it may not be amiss to say that ants have a curious habit of carrying the dead of their own commumty from the confines of the formicary, depositing them together in a convenient spot outside the bounds. So far as I have observed, they do not treat the carcass of an alien ant in this way, but appear to show this mark of respect to those of their own community alone. This is the basis of the popular notion that ants have cemeteries for the burial ■ of their brotherhood. I have verifled the fact to the extent above stated, and the point opens an interesting field for larger and more active study by some enterprising lover of emmet life It has been said that the ant egg when dropped by the queen is seized by one of the attendants and carried away to the nurses. These receive it and place it in one of the chambers aloug with others of its kind. In a little while the egg becomes a little white worm, or larva, with a greedy appetite for sweets. It is as helpless as a human baby and as dependent upon the care of adults. That care is not wanting. One can hardly fail to notice also the common characteristic of maternal fondness in dealing with these baby ants. The nurses shift the little ones back and forth, from one position to another, as far at least as a human being can judge, without having bettered the matter in the least, öeeiaingly they have only indulged the f ancy of a mother to move abouther baby just to gratify her own affections. They even appear to me at times to take the little Ijhings np and dandie them, after the fashion of a young mother and her first infant. However, all this may be bn "anthropomorphism, " a state of mina rom which the observer of social in sects can scarcely ever wholly escape. - Rev. H. C. McCook in Northwesterr Christian Advocate. If time is money, why oan't a ma pay his barber with the time he spendx waiting for his turn?