The chapter opens with the author making a catalogue of the smallest insect who is also the wisest insects. He wonders if it is the fly, the mosquito or the worm. He realizes that the insect that justly fits into this category is the ant. It is the most commonly found insect, the smallest and the wisest. The author seems impressed by the story of ant’s life and analysis it.
On observing a row of ants moving up and down the wall, it becomes amply clear that the ants use their antennae or feelers to communicate or to talk to each other. Each ant greets all the other ants coming from the opposite direction by touching their feelers.
Ant’s House
We have a children seen the most common types of ants, that is red and black ants. If we would have observed them, closely we would have known that ants live in comfortable homes called ‘nests’ of ‘ anthills’. Some rooms of this house are used by the queen ants to lay eggs, while others are used by young ants or grubs till they grow up. There are soldiers who guard the food and never go out to search for food. Ants follow a very simple and efficient division of labour. No one interferes in another’s task nor do they harm each other. Therefore, ants are believed to lead a very peaceful life.
Queen Ants and the Grubs
The queen ant’s life span is about 15 years. The queen ant casts away its pair of wings after its ‘Wedding flight. ’On a shot summer day, the queen ant leaves its nest and goes to meet a male ant high up in the air. On its return to Earth , it does nothing. But lay eggs. The grubs or the ant’s little ones come out of the hatched eggs.
The soldiers take care of the grubs. The workers and cleaners feed them and clean them.. The grubs take 2 - 3 weeks to become cocoons. They take another 3 weeks to become perfect ants. As they become perfect ants they begin to receive training from older ants, learn their duties and get ready to face the world.
Anthills Inhabit Other Species Too
Anthills serve as homes not only to ants, but also for some other creatures like beetles, lesser breeds of ants and greenfly. Some of these creatures give sweet smell or sweet juices and some are kept as pets by the ants. The ants train the greenfly to give milk to the ants.
Ant : The teacher
There is a lot of that human beings can learn from the ants. They work hard, have a sense of duty and discipline, maintain cleanliness and look after their young ones really well. The indeed could be called the tiny teachers.