Kathleen Menzel# age 13, of Zearing Iowa, for her questions
Is it true that ants keep pets?‑
An antst nest is like a well‑run city, teeming with inhabitants each with his or her own: duties to perform. We. know of more than. 15,000 different varieties‑of ant and many more remain to be discovered. There are, ants who.. cultivate midget crops.‑and ants who keep midget cows, ants who sew and sad to . say ants who, keep slaves. The neat of ‑bach type of ant has its own special features,. But the busy city. is always shared with a large number of unlikely strangers. Altogether, we know of more than 2,000 different creatures that‑ share the city of tunnels with the ants. The strange strange assortment includes big and bitsy beetles,. silverfish, flies, cockroaches, caterpillars and crickets. Same of them are pests and some are pets.
In every nest there. is sure to be a large variety of pet beetles, These pampered darlings enjoy the shelter of the ant tunnels and the protection of the scrappy little warriors who guard the city. We do not‑know whether ants share loving affection with their pets as we do. But there is certainly a give‑and‑take between them.
When a busy worker ant meets one of. the nest pets;, she pauses a moment in her hurry‑scurry duties. She uses her antennae to stroke the little creature. as though he were a ,furry kitten. Instead of purring however, the pampered pet gives off a sweet, fatty substance on the. underside of his abdomen and the ant squeezes.up a drop of sweet ant syrup frown her crop.
The ant sucks off the sweet syrup from the beetle, and the beetle, of ' give‑and‑take works out very well for both parties and pets pf this kind are always welcome in the ant city.
However there are also many ratty little pests who steal the ant food and give nothing in return. What’s more, there Is nothing the hard working ants can do about it.
The ant city depends for its food upon the busy workers. The adult worker can digest only liquids. The solids she eats pass into a tiny bag behind her tiny jars where they are broken down by strong saliva. The ant then swallows the liquid food and spits out the crusts, She has two stomachs. One is for her own use, the other is her crop or social stomach. Here she stores food for the use of other ants and the ant pets.
When a worker is stroked by the antennae of a hungry ant, she coughs up a drop of liquid from her crop and the food is passed from mouth to mouth. It is hard to imagine how this food can be stolen* But the nest is full of robbers. They are much smaller than the ants and they live in tiny tunnels off the main city streets. There they lie in wait, dashing out to catch the drips from an ant feeding. Then back they rush to safety in alleys too small for the ants to follow.