BLACK ANTS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 119, 12 January 1932, Page 6

BLACK ANTS

MANY DIFFERENT SPECIES TO BE FOUND IN AUSTRALIA. PROFESSOR'S RESEARCH. Professor W. M. Wheeler, leader of the big expedition from Harvard University, who has spent a busy three : months tapping the ant resources of Australia, told of his conclusions be- • fore leaving for U.S.A. by the' Veni ture, says the Sydney Sun. : He admits that .the household ant 1 is rather evil-smelling, even for an ; ant, but a few minutes with Dr. Wheeler leaves one with a wholesome respect for the little black chap so keen in his own fashion on keeping Australia white. There are millions of other good Australian ants willing to come to his assistance. According to Dr. Wheeler, woe betide any Argentine ant caught sneaking ashore from a visiting ship, although the visitor is a first cousin to our chap. South Africa, the Canaries, Southern Europe, and Southern U.S.A. have not had such defenders as our little black chaps, and have had to take other steps to meet this plague from the Argentine. Let Others Work. In the Canary Islands they proved ■ a serious menace to the banana industry, spreading scale insects. These insects the invaders coolly placed on the plants, so that they could make an easy living off the excreta. . With all his study, Dr. Wheeler retains the same friendly feeling as the layman towards the bulldog ant. "They are the only serious animals in the bush here," he volunteers, and describes them as "most primitive, a wasplike type that for 60,000,000 years has probably remained the same." Yet the bulldog ant is among .the most far-sighted in the ant.kingdom. He is able to see his vietim, and sails in. But life after all is to most ants simply one of odour. Some are completely blind. They recognise their trails by odour, and that bumping you see when they meet one another is merely the giving and receiving of a Fascist, or rather a Communist, salute, between friends. There is not the .same shoulderrubbing with strangers. With the approach of an odour of an objectionable ant, the homing one either turns away and races to put on end to it. There is no government in the colonies, members living in socialist families, having a common mother at the i head, but her main business is the peopling of the State, and it seems j to keep her fully occupied. Sterile females do the drawing and I hewing. Males are drones, and they j die young. • i There are 8000 species of ants, | about 1200 of which are in Australia, ; and Dr. Wheeler thinks he has seen j most of them. Aren't We All. ' j It would be a mistake to. say that • j ants always reason things out, says ; Dr. Wheeler. They have a slight in- I telligence, but a great many of their [ actions are automatic. • They act in a particular manner, | and are not clear what they are doing \ — still, many of our activities are the [| same, so why pick on the ant? ii