The Social Ants

Entomologists are forever disagreeing about ants. Some insist that the ant is brainier and better organized than man; others regard the ant as a slothful, inconsistent dimwit which gets along solely on a few inherited habits. John (The Life of the Spider) Crompton, a British expert, strikes a sprightly middle course. In a new book, Ways of the Ant (Houghton Mifflin; $3.50), he declares that ants, banded together in communities, have evolved emotions, "discipline and intelligence of a high order," even though the individual ant may be a nincompoop compared to a go-it-alone housefly. Some of Author Crompton's evidence:

P: Some ants are gardeners. Latin America's famed leaf-cutting parasol ants, long thought to gather leaves solely for wallpaper, actually chew them into a pulp to make an underground compost heap in which to grow mushroom spores. When a parasol princess flies forth to mate, she carries in her cheek her dowry: a speck of mushroom culture to start the garden that will feed her thousands of future children.

P: A force of sanguin ants raided a nearby negro ant city, killed its defenders, returned home laden with captured cocoons (future slaves). But shortly afterward, the entire sanguin population came pouring out of their own nest, carrying not only the captured negro cocoons but their own cocoons as well, plus all their food, eggs, and their queen. They headed straight for the desolate negro city and made it their own. Author Crompton believes that "more or less mental processes must have taken place": i.e., even in the heat of battle, the sanguin warriors noticed that the enemy city was better than their own, returned home and persuaded their fellows to migrate.

P: Africa's blind, carnivorous driver ants move in endless, well-ordered columns flanked by their larger "officers," who lead and direct the march. Scouts in the van investigate likely targets and lead an "ant-sea" attack to devour everything living within reach. But for all their ferocity, the drivers die in direct sunlight. Forced to cross bare ground on a bright day, they quickly throw up earth to form a covered archway as protection, and march on.

P: Some ants are harvesters: they husk, store and dry seeds of grain, cutting roads six inches wide through vegetation to reach their crops. Most harvest ants march out together to gather the seeds, then straggle back with their burdens. Some ants which return without grain apparently feel embarrassed, pick up a useless pebble or a fallen petal and carry it along for show until they get home.

P: Some ants are hopeless "alcoholics." Certain species of British ants keep caterpillars of the Lycaena butterfly in their underground nests, by caressing them obtain drops of ant-intoxicating liquid. In their insatiable craving, the ants feed their own offspring and eggs to the caterpillars: nevertheless, when the caterpillars mature into butterflies, the ants peaceably let them escape to the outside world.

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