INSECT ENGINEERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3799, 31 May 1928, Page 1

INSECT ENGINEERS.

“Man’s respect for the ant will be increased by the latest discovery about these intelligent and industrious Lilliputians,” says the Daily Herald. “For many years scientists have been puzzled by the fact that, in South Africa and other hot countries, the white ants’ nests are always saturated with heated water vapour. This mysterious steam supply never fails, even after three years’ drought. The explorer Livingstone believed that the insects had hit on some way of manufacturing water synthetically. And others hazarded solutions. But now the astonishing secret is out. During the digging of a well on a Transvaal farm-stead a 2lin. shaft was found running down into the earth. Careful excavation showed that this miniature boring ran from

a neighbouring ants’ nest to a reservoir 65ft. below the surface. Up and down the shaft passed an endless chain of white ants carrying water to the nest and to the fungus gardens which provide their food. It took half -an-hour for each ‘water-boy’ to travel down the shaft, draw his load, and return. The convoy never stopped for a moment; the insects climbed on day after day, night after night. Toilers appointed to other tasks during the daytime were, apparently, transferred to the irrigation shift after sunset, when the Unceasing stream of carriers grew thicker and their tiny trumpetings could be clearly heard. A remarkable story, this tale of the ants and their artesian well —a story fit to rank with the most ingenious achievements in the realms of human engineering.”