Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1914 — Longevity of Anls. [ARTICLE]

Longevity of Anls.

Ants are really very long lived, considering their minuteness. A naturalist had two queens under observation for ten yean and one of Sir John Lubbock's ant pets lived into her 15th year. Ants are very tenacious of life after severe Injury. Following loss of the entire abdomen they sometimes live two weeks and in one case a headless ant, carefully decapitated by aseptic surgery, lived for forty-one days. A carpenter ant after being submerged eight days in distilled water came to life upon being dried, so that they are practically proof against drowning. They can live long periods without food; in one case the fast lasted nearly nine months.