Ant
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Ant. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a family of insects allied to bees and wasps. Ants are not mistaken readily for other insects; but scientists rely on a lens-shaped scale or segment to be found at the waist or peduncle of the true ant. Ants are social, living in communities. The males and females are winged. The workers are undeveloped females. They are wingless. The reader is referred to the article on the BEE for comparative information. The ant queen is not jealous. Several may live in the same community, hence no regular swarming takes place. In the season of haying the males and females of many thousand communities come out and fly together, giving the impression that flying ants are a species by themselves. After the pairing season is over, they all fall to the earth. The males die and the females drop their wings and seek entrance to ant hills, where they are welcomed by the workers, or else they start new nests. The eggs of the ant are so small that they can scarcely be seen with the naked eye. The queens drop them carelessly in the runways. The eggs are seized upon by the workers, and shifted about to the driest and warmest parts of the nest. The tiny, white, footless larvae are fed usually by the workers with rich honeydew. The "ants' eggs," which the excited workers may be seen lugging away on the disturbance of their nest, are not eggs but are cocoons or pupae; that is to say, ants in the third stage about to burst the white membrane and come out fully developed. There are many species of ants. The common, small brown ant that throws up a ring of particles of earth about its burrow is quite a remarkable ant in its way. Ants live usually on flesh or vegetable food and many species, if not all, are fond of flower sweets; but this particular ant makes a regular custom of following plant lice, or aphids, for the sake of the honeydew or sweet juice which these insects give out from their bodies. This ant even cares for the eggs of the aphid over winter, and apparently herds the adult aphids. An ant approaches an aphid, fondles it affectionately with its antennae, and, when the pleased animal gives off honeydew through the tubercles of its body, the ant proceeds to suck it up greedily. Ants found running up and down the stems of weeds, cornstalks, house plants, and trunks of trees or garden vegetables, are, in all probability, on the way to or from their peculiar "milk cows." The carpenter ant is a large, black ant found in logs and half rotten timbers, in which it cuts extensive galleries. The queen goes off into a cell alone and rears her young, feeding them on food stored in her body. The honey ant community includes peculiar individuals that stay in chambers and receive the honey collected by their associates until they grow to enormous size. In time of scarcity these vat-like ants regurgitate this honey for the benefit of their now hungry fellows. The slave-holding ant has a rusty red head and foreparts, with brownish legs and abdomen. It makes its nest under flat stones and logs. It has a curious habit of making slaves, not unlike that practiced by ancient nations. Scouts are sent out to locate the nest of a colony of independent slave ants, a darker red-legged ant that prefers to live alone and unmolested. When the scouts have reported, the slave makers sally out in full and orderly array to storm the nest of their neighbors. The adult ants defend themselves fiercely, for if overcome, they are bitten to death. Their larvae and pupae, maggots and cocoons, are taken home by the conquerors and matured into slaves. One of our common ants is the mound builder that constructs mounds of sticks, straw, and dirt. These ants have commodious underground quarters. They construct pathways leading in all directions along which they tug, carry, and push seeds, insects, and leaves many times their own weight. The agricultural ant of Texas establishes paths leading in every direction from the home. It destroys all vegetation near the nest, with the exception of certain seed-bearing grass. This it cuts down when ripe, carrying the seed into its burrows for winter food. The so-called leaf-cutting ant is an agricultural pest in Central America . An invasion of these ants is as much to be feared in a lemon or orange grove as a flight of Rocky Mountain locusts in a wheat field. Instead of bloom, fragrance, and promise of fruit, in a few days, or even hours, not a vestige of leaf or bud is to be seen. The telegraph poles of the Panama Railway are of iron. The army ants of that region destroy a cedar pole over night. Du Chaillu, the African traveler, describes a column of army ants that occupied twelve hours in passing before him. Wild animals flee before them. They pick the bones of the largest animal in a few hours. It has been thought that ants communicate ideas by means of their antennae. When one ant meets another, they cross antennae, apparently by way of giving information. At all events a messenger has some means of throwing a camp into a high state of excitement. The ant has long had the respect of naturalists and philosophers and has an enviable place in literature, well summarized by Solomon, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise." See Termites ; Bee ; Wasp ; Anteater ; Aphid Storehouse of the honey ant. Visiting ants on the march. Agricultural ant of Texas. Ants A colony of army ants on the march. Ants Nest of the woolly ant. Ants 2026 Editor's Note: Ants turn out to rule the earth by sheer mass: an estimated twenty quadrillion of them together outweigh all wild birds and mammals combined. Science has since found ants that farm fungus, herd aphids like cattle, wage organized war and form supercolonies stretc hing thousands of miles — a complexity the great naturalist E. O. Wilson spent a lifetime charting. (Ed: BR 2026-07-12)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the common name of hymenopterous (membrane-winged) insects of various genera, of the family Formicidæ, found in most temperate and tropical regions. They are small but powerful insects, and have long been noted for CELL OF BLACK NEST-FEEDING LARVÆ their remarkable intelligence and interesting habits. They live in communities regulated by definite laws, each member of the society bearing a well-defined and separate part in the work of the colony. Each community consists of males; of females much larger than the males; and of barren females, otherwise called neu ters, workers, or nurses. The neuters are wingless, and the males and females only acquire wings for their "nuptial flight," after which the males perish, and the few females which escape the pursuit of their numerous enemies divest themselves of their wings, and either return to established nests or become the foundresses of new colonies. The neuters perform all the labors of the anthill or abode of the community; they excavate the galleries, procure food, and feed the larvæ or young ants, which are destitute of organs of motion. In fine weather they carefully convey them to the surface for the benefit of the sun's heat, and carry them to a place of safety either when bad weather is threatened or the ant hill is disturbed. In like manner they watch over the safety of A 00003 @ B C EFF A. Larva, Black Ant, Pupae B. Soldier of Black Ant C. Queen of Black Ant D. Honey Ant the nymphs or pupæ about to acquire their perfect growth. Some communities possess a special type of neuters, known as "soldiers," from the duties that especially fall upon them, and from their powerful biting jaws. Most of American ants form nests in woods, fields, or gardens, their abodes being generally in the form of small mounds rising above the surface of the ground and containing numerous galleries and apartments. Some excavate nests in old tree trunks. Houses built by the common wood ant (formica rufa) are frequently as large as a small hay cock. The senses of ants are well developed. They can perceive rays and hear sounds for which our sense organs are not adapted. They are able to recognize the members of their own community, even when these are intoxicated, or removed from the nest as larvæ and brought up Their ingenuity in econseparately. omizing labor, e. g., in dropping desired to others waiting objects from a height ght below-in overcoming obstacles, e. g., by themselves forming living bridges or substantial inanimate building more ones in the architectural devices exhibited by their manifold nests, and in many other ways-has become a common subject of deserved admiration though their marvelous powers are associated with no less striking limitations, in their recognition after separation for months, in their care for the young or disabled, as well as in their persistent enmity to competing species and communities, ants exhibit a considerable range of emotional development. Some ants live on animal food, very quickly picking quite clean the skeleton of any dead animal they may light on. Others live on saccharine matter, being very fond of the sweet substance, called honey dew, which exudes from the bodies of aphides, or plant lice. These they sometimes keep in their nests, and sometimes tend on the plants where they feed; sometimes they even superintend their breeding. By stroking the aphides with their antennæ, they cause them to emit the sweet fluids, which the ants then greedily sip up. Various other insects are looked after by ants in a similar manner, or are found in their nests. It has been observed that some species, like the sanguinary ant (formica sanguinea), resort to violence to obtain working ants of other species for their own use, plundering the nests of suitable kinds of their larvæ and pupæ, which they carry off to their own nests to be carefully reared and kept as slaves. In temperate countries male and female ants survive, at most till autumn, or to the commencement of cool weather, though a very large proportion of them cease to exist long previous to that time. The neuters pass the winter in a state of torpor, and of course require no food. The only time they require food is during the season of activity, when they have a vast number of young to feed. Some ants of southern Europe feed on grain, and store it up in their nests for use when required. Some species have stings as weapons, others only their powerful mandibles, or an acrid and pungent fluid (formic acid) which they can emit. The name ant is also given to the neuropterous insects otherwise called termites.