PARASOL ANTS

Shannon News, 19 January 1926, Page 4

PARASOL ANTS

WONDERFUL COLONY IN LONDON There has arrived at the London Zoo a colony of parasol ants a queen and her kingdom complete. The queen is really a queen. She does nothing but lay eggs; the more she lays the more popular she it. In return for this she is waited on hand and foot by' her most devoted clan. Food is Brought to her, but her toilet is the concern of the whole family, as she is twenty or thirty times the size of her largest subject, each ant having a particular job to to in her "beauty parlotir." Parasol ants live chiefly in America, and are so named because when carrying leaves to the nest they hold them above their heads like a parasol. They have enormous strengthFour of them can move a piece of earth as large as an egg. The nest is well regulated and no "slackers" are .allowed. Queens once accepted are rarely changed, but if a change is desired the existing queen is fed on certain food which will enable her to lay a "queen", egg, tho new queen replacing her mother.