Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 249, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1912 — INTELLIGENCE OF ANTS. [ARTICLE]

INTELLIGENCE OF ANTS.

If Dr, Howard, the chief of the Bureau of Entomology of the Department of Agriculture were not well known over at least two continents as an eminently practical scientist whose intelligent and aggressive work has saved from bug ravages millions of dollars* worth of agricultural produce, his story of the intelligence of ants, as observed in the greenhouses of the Department were certainly consigned to the “nature faking” class. But knowing the Doctor’s hard-headed successes the possible imputation falls to the ground. As the story goes, one of the greenhouses of the Department is frequented in considerable numbers by a medium sized black ant/ attracted by the presence of mealy bugs and plant Hoe on the hot-house plants. As is well known ants are especially fond of the nectar secreted by those insects. Some years ago a colony of Liberian coffee trees were started in the greenhouse. At the bases of the leaves of these coffee ’trees can be found very small neotarsecretlng glands. The ants soon discovered this and sipped the nectar. Then the idea seemed to occur to some clever, ant that these nectar glands would be the best place in the world for the mealy bugs to live and grow fat and in consequence secrete a great deal more nectar than they would if left on other parts of the leaves. But the nectar glands on the coffee tree leaves were each too small to accommodate even one mealy bug. So the word was passed around and the ants gnawed the edges of the glands and enlarged them SO that each would support a goodsized mealy bug, which the-arfits then carried to it. The mealy bug throve exceedingly. The gland was enlarged still further and a whole family of mealy bugs was raised in the same hole. Thus a custom grew up and many such greatly enlarged glands were found in a few months, the ants reaping a plentiful supply of their beloved nectar. Here then, said Dr. Howard, was an ant apparently taking advantage of an opportunity which was new not only to the experience of the Individual but new to the experience of .the race, and if we adopt the most reasonable , of the definitions of instinct, there seems to have been displayed intelligence of a high order.—The Indiana Farmer.