Part 11 (1/2)
THE ANT WHO DIDN'T KNOW HIS TRADE
As youand no place for a a roof fro any attention to the fact that the other as her The result was he struck theit at the top Another ant passing, possibly the supervising architect, saas going to happen So what does he do but stop and tear down the other's work and build the ceiling over again!
”There! _That's_ the way to put in a ceiling,” he seeoodness sake, where _did_ you learn your trade?”
Huber, the famous student of ants, sao of these wonderful insects do the very sa
Sometimes the situation is such that it is necessary to build a very wide ceiling, so wide that it would fall of its oeight unless supported in some way Then ould you do; that is, if _you_ were an ant?
”Why, I'd put up pillars to hold it”
That's exactly what the ants do; they put up pillars; but instead of using steel beams, as men do in this day of steel, the ant architects make pillars of clay--build them up with pellets, little clay bricks which they shape with their mandibles--their jaws
But the ants seem to have soirders and things Ebrard, a French student of ants, tells hohen a certain roof threatened to fall, sorass as a girder, just as Sir Christopher in his day put in girders to support the roof of Saint Paul's Cathedral, and as irders to-day The ant fastened a littlenear to bend it over; then gnawed it a little at the bottom to make it bend still more, and finally fixed it withthat will make you smile! You have heard about the lazy man down in Arkansas with the hole in his roof? You remember he never mended it in dry weather because it didn't need it, and when it rained he _couldn't_ mend it on account of the rain!
RAINY-DAY WORK IN THE ANT WORLD
Well, these _Formica fusca_ folks are as different froine First of all, being ants, they are anything but lazy; secondly, they never put off needed work on their roofs on account of rain In fact, they _choose_ the first wet day to do it As soon as the rain begins they build up a thick terrace on the roof of the old dwelling, carrying in their jaws little piles of finely ground earth which they spread out with their hind legs Then, by hollowing out this roof, they turn it into a new story Last of all they put on the ceiling You see the rain helps the their clay
There are ants that build up vaulted viaducts or covered ways, and they use clay for that[13] Theyearth with saliva
Some of these viaducts reach out from the house--the ants' house--to their ”cow” pasture
[13] The scientific naer_
[Illustration: AN ANT CARRYING ONE OF HER COWS]
You know about how ants keep cows, little bugs called aphids? The aphids feed on plants, and the clay viaducts protect the ants fro to and from the pasture; for this particular family of ants doesn't like the sun Theythe clay viaduct are large roomy spaces, cow-sheds, so to speak--where the little honey cows gather when they aren't feeding Another kind of ant builds earth huts around its cow pastures The large red ants (_F rufa_), soe as small haycocks
II THE TERMITES AND THEIR TOWERS OF BABEL
But speaking of big buildings, did you ever hear of a skyscraper ato tell you about now is as h skyscraper would be taller than a man The remarkable little creatures that build these skyscrapers are called ”termites” Termites are also known as ”white ants” This seems funny e know that they are neither ”ants” nor are they white The young of the workers are white, to be sure, but the grown-ups are of various colors, and neverThe termites were first called ”white ants” in books of travel because the ter people
HOW TERMITES ARE LIKE THE ANTS
The teron-flies, cockroaches, and crickets than of the ants, but they do look a great deal like an ant, and they have many of the ways of the ants As in the case of ants, all the me lives with the queen in a private apart and queen will have separate residences, but the termite royalties always live in the same house with their people; they are very democratic
Some kinds of termites live in rotten trees, which they tunnel into, and that is their contribution to soil- solid houses of earth and fibres, mixed These houses are called ”terh; fully 1,000 tih, and then ot nearly a mile!
[Illustration: SKYScrapERS A MILE HIGH
”Soreat, solid houses of earth and fibres ht, ten, even twenty-five feet high, fully one thousand tih and then ot nearly a mile”]