It has been suggested, that in such instances as the preceding, the Ants may have been led by the scent or trace of treacle likely to be left by the solitary prisoner; and the following case, related by Bradley, is quoted to favor the opinion: "A nest of Ants in a nobleman's garden discovered a closet, many yards within the house, in which conserves were kept, which they constantly attended till the nest was destroyed. Some, in their rambles, must have first discovered this depot of sweets, and informed the rest of it. It is remarkable that they always went to it by the same track, scarcely varying an inch from it, though they had to pass through two apartments; nor could the sweeping and cleaning of the rooms discomfit them, or cause them to pursue a different route."
Dionisio Carli, of Piacenza, a missionary in Congo, lying sick at that place, was awakened one night by his monkey leaping on his head, and almost at the same time by his Blacks crying out, much to his surprise, "Out! Out! Father!" Thoroughly awake now, Carli asked them what was the matter? "The Ants," they cried, "are broke out, and there is no time to be lost!" Not being able to stir, he bid them carry him into the garden, which they did, four of them lifting him upon his straw bed; and yet though very quick about it, the Ants had already commenced crawling up his legs. After shaking them off their master, the Blacks took straw and fired it on the floor of four rooms, where these insects by this time were over half a foot thick. The pests being thus destroyed, Carli was conveyed back to his chamber, where he found the stench so great from the burnt bodies, that he was forced, he says, to hold his monkey close to his nose!
These Ants, Carli relates, ate up every living object within their reach; and of one cow, which was accidentally left over night in the stable through which they passed, nothing but the bones were found the next morning. We need not wonder at this, if we believe what Bosman has said of the Black-ants of Guinea, which were so surprisingly rapacious that no animal could stand before them. He relates an instance where they reduced for him one of his live sheep in one night to a perfect skeleton, and that so nicely that it surpassed the skill of the best anatomists. Du Chaillu says the elephant and gorilla fly before the attack of the Bashikouay-ants, and the black men run for their lives. Many a time has he himself, he says, been awakened out of a sleep, and obliged to rush out of his hut and into the water to save his life! The Driver-ants of Western Africa, A. nomma arcens, have been known to kill the Python natalensis, the largest serpent of that part of the world.
Col. St. Clair, after a visit by a species of small Red-ants, makes mention of the following instance, among others, of their singular destructiveness: "I next discovered that a little pet deer, which I had purchased from a negro, was extremely ill. I could not discover the cause of its malady, until, placing it on its legs, I observed that it would not let one foot touch the ground, and, on examining it, I found, to my grief, that the Red-ants had absolutely eaten a hole into the bone. The poor little animal pined all that day and died in the evening."
Capt. Stedman relates that the Fire-ants of Surinam caused a whole company of soldiers to start and jump about as if scalded with boiling water; and its nests were so numerous that it was not easy to avoid them. And Knox, in his account of Ceylon, mentions a black Ant, called by the natives Kaddiya, which, he says, "bites desperately, as bad as if a man were burnt by a coal of fire; but they are of a noble nature, and will not begin unless you disturb them." The reason the Singhalese assign for the horrible pain occasioned by their bite is curious, and is thus related by Knox: "Formerly these Ants went to ask a wife of the Noya, a venomous and noble kind of snake; and because they had such a high spirit to dare to offer to be related to such a generous creature, they had this virtue bestowed upon them, that they should sting after this manner. And if they had obtained a wife of the Noya, they should have had the privilege to sting full as bad as he." Capt. Stedman has a story of a large Ant that stripped the trees of their leaves, to feed, as was supposed by the natives of Surinam, a blind serpent under ground, which is somewhat akin to this: as is also another, related to Kirby and Spence by a friend, of a species of Mantis, taken in one of the Indian islands, which, according to the received opinion among the natives, was the parent of all their serpents. But, the reverse: Among the harmless snakes of Mexico is a beautiful one about a foot in length, and of the thickness of the little finger, which appears to take pleasure in the society of Ants, insomuch that it will accompany these insects upon their expeditions, and return with them to their usual nest. From this peculiarity it is called by the Spaniards and Mexicans the "Mother of the Ants."
When in Africa, Du Chaillu was told by the natives that criminals in former times were exposed to the path of the Bashikouay-ants, as the most cruel way of putting them to death. This dreadful manner of torturing was at one time also practiced by the Singhalese, and I have heard that several British soldiers have thus met their fate. The Termites have been referred to before as having been employed for a similar purpose.
To check the ravages of the Coffee-bug, Lecanium coffea, Walker, which for several years was devastating some of the plantations of Ceylon, the experiment was made of introducing the Red-ants, Formica smaragdina, Fab., which feed greedily on the Coccus. But the remedy threatened to be attended with some inconvenience, for, says Tennent, the Malabar coolies, with bare and oiled skins, were so frequently and fiercely assaulted by the Ants as to endanger their stay on the estates.
The pupae or cocoons of the Ants, during the day, are placed near the surface of the Ant-hills to obtain heat, which is indispensable to the growth of the inclosed insects. This is taken advantage of in Europe to collect the cocoons in large quantities as food for nightingales and larks. The cocoons of a species of Wood-ant, Formica rufa, are the only kind chosen. In most of the towns of Germany, one or more individuals make a living during summer by this business alone. "In 1832," says a contributor to the Penny Encyclopedia, "we visited an old woman at Dottendorf, near Bonn, who had collected for fourteen years. She went to the woods in the morning, and collected in a bag the surfaces of a number of Ant-hills where the cocoons were deposited, taking Ants and all home to her cottage, near which she had a small tiled shed covering a circular area, hollowed out in the center, with a trench full of water around it. After covering the hollow in the center with leafy boughs of walnut or hazel, she strewed the contents of her bag on the level part of the area within the trench, when the Nurse-ants immediately seized the cocoons, and carried them into a hollow under the boughs. The cocoons were thus brought into one place, and after being from time to time removed, and black ones separated by a boy who spread them out on a table, and swept off what were bad with a strong feather, they were ready for market, being sold for about 4d. or 6d. a quart. Considerable quantities of these cocoons are dried for winter food of birds, and are sold in the shops."
Ants not only furnish food to man for his birds, but also food for himself, in both the pupa and imago states. Nicolo Conti, who traveled in India in the early part of the fifteenth century, says the Siamese eat a species of Red-ant, of the size of a small crab, which they consider a great delicacy seasoned with pepper. At the present day, the pupae of a species of Ants are a costly luxury with these people. They are not much larger than grains of sand, and are sent to table curried, or rolled in green leaves, mingled with shreds or very fine slices of fat pork. And in the province of Michuacan, Mexico, is a singular species of Ant, which carries on its abdomen a little bagful of a sweet substance, of which the children are very fond: the Mexicans suppose this to be a kind of honey collected by the insect; but Clavigero thinks it rather its eggs.
Piso, De Laet, Marcgrave, and other writers mention their being an article of food in different parts of South America. Piso speaks of yellow Ants called Cupia inhabiting Brazil, the abdomen of which many used for food, as well as a large species under the name of Tama-joura: "Alia praeterea datur grandis species Tama-joura dicta digiti articulum adaequans. Quarum etiam clunes dessicantur et friguntur pro bono alimento." Says De Laet: "Denique formicae hic visuntur grandissimae, quas indigenae vulgo comedunt; et in foris venales habent." And again: "Formicis vescebantur, easque studiose ad victum educabant." Lucas Fernandez Piedrahita, in his Historia General de las Conquistas del Nuevo Regno de Granada, states that cakes of Casava and Ants were eaten in that country: "Al tiempo de tostarlas para este efecto, dan el mismo olor que los quesillos, que se labran para comer asados." Herrera says, the natives of New Granada made their main food of Ants, which they kept and reared in their yards. Sloane confirms this, and says they are publicly sold in the markets. Abbeville de Noromba tells us these great Ants are fricasseed. Schomburgk, in his journey to the sources of the Essequibo, one evening saw all the boys of a village out shouting and chasing with sticks and palm leaves a large species of winged Ant, which they collected in great numbers in their calabashes for food. When roasted or boiled, he says, the natives considered these insects a great delicacy. Humboldt informs us that Ants are eaten by the Marivatanos and Margueritares, mixed with resin for sauce.
Mr. Consett, in his Travels in Sweden, makes mention of a young Swede who ate live Ants with the greatest relish imaginable. This author states also, that in some parts of Sweden Ants are distilled along with rye, to give a flavor to the inferior kinds of brandy.
The inhabitants of the Tonga Group have a superstitious belief that when their kings, and matabooles, or inferior chiefs, die, they are wafted to Bulotu — "the island of the blessed," but the spirits of the lower class remain in the world, and feed on Ants and lizards.
Ants also furnish us with an acid, called by the chemists Formic, which is said to answer the same purposes as the acetous acid. It is obtained in two modes: 1st. By distillation; the insects are introduced into a glass retort, distilled by a gentle heat, and the acid is found in the recipient. 2d. By the process called lixiviation; the Ants are washed in cold water, spread out upon a linen cloth, and boiling water poured over them, which becomes charged with the acid part.
Formic acid is shed so sensibly by the wood Ant, Formica rufa, when an Ant-hill is stirred, that it can occasion an inflammation. If a living frog, it is asserted, be fixed upon an Ant-hill which is deranged, the animal will die in less than five minutes, even without having been bitten by the Ants.