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Show Do Ants ThinkP Lord Avebury, the naturaliat, Insists (hat ants possess- minda and display a high order of Intelligence. "Tho social habits of ants afford arguments which teem conclusive," ho says. "Take first their relations with other Insects. Those between anta and aphides, which have been called ant cows, are Indeed inoat remarkable. It is not merely that the ants milk them, tend them, defend them from attack, sometimes? protect then by earthen lnclosures from too great summer sum-mer heat, hut over and above all this they collect the eggs In autumn, keep them through the winter and plant them out of their proper plant In the spring-. Some of the roof aphtldes may always bo found in ants' nests, but I was much puzzled years ago by finding in ants' nents some black eggs, which obviously were not those of ants. Eventually I ascertained that they belonged to a apc-clea apc-clea of aphis which Uvea on the leaves and leaf stalks of plants. "Thetw eggs are laid early in October on the food plant of the Insect. They are of no direct use to the ants, yet they are not left where they are laid, exposed ex-posed to the severity of the weather and to Innumerable dangers, but are brought Into their nesta by the ants and tended by them with the utmost care through the long winter months until the following follow-ing March, when the young ones are brought out and agqln placed on the young shoots of the daisy. This seems to me a most remarkable ense of prudence. pru-dence. 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 enahlo them to procure pro-cure food during the following summer a case of prudence unexampled in the animal kingdom." Dr. Forel gives these examples of the mental processes of ants. "While success suc-cess visibly heightens both the audacity and tenacity of the ant, it Is possible to observe, after- repeated failure or In consequence of the sudden and unexpected unex-pected attacks of, powerful enemies a form of dejection which may lead to a neglect of the most Important Instincts to cowardly night, to the devouring or casting away of offspring, to neglect of work and similar conditions. There is acute discouragement when a combat is stlo." Chicago New it |