Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1879 — Sir John Lubbock and His Ants. [ARTICLE]

Sir John Lubbock and His Ants.

One of the best rooms on the first floor of High is devoted to work, and at the present moment contains a menagerie of ants. Between thirty and forty species are represented by separate nests, placed under glass, carefully shaded from the light, and surrounded by water to prevent the interesting insects from escaping and pervading the house. It is pleasant to see Sir John Lubbock, arrayed in his working suit of gray stuff, gently uncovering the nests, and replacing the screens quickly lest the animals should take alarm at the influx of light, and be thrown into disorganization by the thought that their nest is attacked. It is curious to observe that these tiny creatures have animals with them, which, it may be presumed, are useful in some way, as the ants forbear to attack them. They are mostly of the beetle race, and some, like the little Claviger, are quite blind, possibly from confirmed subterranean habits, and are only found in ants’mests, the proprietors of which take -as much care of them as they do of their own young. Apparently ants have a considerable variety of domestic animal?, among which the blind Platyarthrusls conspicuous, as well as the Beckia albinos, the latter of which was first fully described by Sir 'John, Lubbock, who suggests that perhaps these two act the part of the Constantinople dog and the turkeybuzzard, making themselves useful as scavengers. An hour’s chat with the owner of this well-organized work-room has a tendency to dispel some early illusions of the unscientific mind concerning the industry of the ant. It is an industrious creature in the main, but there are ants and ants. The large red species found in Central Europe, and which displays extraordinary activity when light is admitted to its nest, is not industrious at all, being a purely fighting aristocrat and slaveholder. She—the fighting ants are Amazons—makes predatory excursions, like the “ commandoes” of theold Dutch boers, and carries off the pupae or chrysalis, the so-called ants’ eggs, of which young pheasants are so fond, of another species, and brings them up as slaves. As Sir John Lubbock points out, the slaveholders present “ a striking instance of the degrading tendency of slavery.” They can neither wash nor feed themselves. They have lost the greater part of their instincts; their art, or power of building; their domestic habits, for they take no care of their young; their industry, for they take no part in providing themselves with food; and, if the colony changes its nest, the rulers are carried by their slaves to the new one. Even their structure has altered; their mandibles have lost their teeth, and have become mere nippers, terrible in war but useless for other purposes. So helpless, except for lighting purposes, have they become, that, it deprived of their slaves, they actually die of hunger. These curious facts, which sound almost like the romance of natural history, have all been verified at High Elms by observations which confirm those of Huber in almost every case. —London World. —A South Carolina belle, who is expected to dazzle society in Washington when her father gets there, is Miss Hampton, the daughter of the Senatorelect. She is described as tall, slender and graceful, with dark hair and remarkable conversational powers.

A resident of North Troy, Vt., has been held in SI,OOO bail for drawing caricatures of prominent citizens.