Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/660

leg" is held up, which a fellow worker is sponging with her tongue, moving gently with "the lay of the hair" from thigh to foot. Then the mouth is passed steadily over the body; next the neck is licked, then prothorax and head. Now the friendly operator leaves, and her comrade takes up the toilet service for herself.

Note another couple. The cleanser has begun at the face, which is thoroughly brushed, even the jaws being cared for, which are held apart for convenient manipulation. From the face the operator passes to the thorax, thence to the

Combing the Antennæ

haunch, and so along the first leg, along the second and third legs in the same manner, around to the abdomen, and thence up the other side to the head. Another ant approaches and joins in the friendly task, but soon quits it. All this while the attitude of the cleansed ant is one of intense satisfaction, quite like that of a family dog when one scratches his neck. The insect stretches out her limbs, and as her friend takes them successively into hand, yields them limp and supple to her manipulation. She rolls slowly over upon her side, even quite over upon her back, and with all her limbs relaxed presents a perfect picture of muscular surrender and ease.

The pleasure which the creatures take in being thus brushed and "sponged" is really enjoyable to the stander-by. The writer has seen an ant kneel down before a fellow and thrust forward its head, drooping, quite under the face, and lie there motionless, thus expressing as plainly as sign-language could do her wish to be cleansed. The observer understood the gesture, and so did the supplicated ant, for she at once went to work.

The acrobatic skill of these ants was fully shown one morning in the offices of ablution. The formicary had been taken from its place, where it had become chilled, and set on the hearth before an open fire. The warmth was soon diffused through the nest, and roused its occupants to unusual activity. A tuft of grass in the centre of the box was presently covered with them. They climbed to the top of the spires, turned around and around, hanging by their paws, not unlike gymnasts performing upon a ladder. They hung or clung in various positions, grasping the grass-blade with the third and fourth pairs of legs, which were spread out at length, meanwhile cleansing their heads with the fore legs, or bending underneath to comb and lick the abdomen. Among these were several ants, and in one case a pair, engaged in washing and brushing a fellow ant. They clung to the grass, having a fore leg on one side of the stem and a hind leg on the other, stretched out at full length, while the cleansed ant hung in a like position below, and reached over and up, submitting herself complaisantly to the process. As the progress of the act required a change of posture by either or both parties, it was made with agility.

These toilet operations usually preceded and followed sleep. For ants, of course, must sleep; and all the tokens of repose appear in them which are common to sleeping animals. Their sleepy ways may be illustrated by the behavior of a group of twenty-five or thirty Agricultural ants in a glass formicary. They had been lured by a gas-lamp upon the table from underground galleries and cells where they spent most of their time, and grouped themselves in little clusters next the light. Some occupied corks, clods, and pebbles placed for them, for they like slight elevations. Others clung to the surface of the glass a little above the ground; but this was not a secure retreat, for they would soon drop off when they fell asleep, whereat, with a drowsy air and crestfallen seeming, they