LIBER XI · CAPUT 30
ANTS
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
30. Plurima insectorum vermiculum gignunt, nam et formicae similem ovis vere,.... et hae communicantes laborem ut apes, sed illae faciunt cibos, hae condunt. ac si quis conparet onera corporibus earum, fateatur nullis portione vires esse maiores. gerunt ea morsu; maiora aversae postremis pedibus moliuntur umeris obnixae. et his reipublicae ratio, memoria, cura. semina adrosa condunt, ne rursus in frugem exeant e terra, maiora ad introitum dividunt, madefacta imbre proferunt atque siccant. operantur et noctu plena luna, eaedem interlunio cessant. iam in opere qui labor, quae sedulitas! et quoniam ex diverso convehunt altera alterius ignara, certi dies ad recognitionem mutuam nundinis dantur. quae tune earum concursatio, quam diligens cum obviis quaedam conlocutio atque percunctatio! silices itinere earum adtritos videmus et opere semitam factam, ne quis dubitet, qualibet in re quid possit quantulacumque adsiduitas. sepeliunt inter se viventium solae praeter hominem. non sunt in Sicilia pinnatae.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
The greater part of the insects produce a maggot. Ants also produce one in spring, which is similar to an egg, and they work in common, like bees; but whereas the last make their food, the former only store it away. If a person only compares the burdens which the ants carry with the size of their bodies, he must confess that there is no animal which, in proportion, is possessed of a greater degree of strength. These burdens they carry with the mouth, but when it is too large to admit of that, they turn their backs to it, and push it onwards with their feet, while they use their utmost energies with their shoulders. These insects, also, have a political community among themselves, and are possessed of both memory and foresight. They gnaw each grain before they lay it by, for fear lest it should shoot while under ground; those grains, again, which are too large for admission, they divide at the entrance of their holes; and those which have become soaked by the rain, they bring out and dry. They work, too, by night, during the full moon; but when there is no moon, they cease working. And then, too, in their labours, what ardour they display, what wondrous carefulness! Because they collect their stores from different quarters, in ignorance of the proceedings of one another, they have certain days set apart for holding a kind of market, on which they meet together and take stock. What vast throngs are then to be seen hurrying together, what anxious enquiries appear to be made, and what earnest parleys are going on among them as they meet! We see even the very stones worn away by their footsteps, and roads beaten down by being the scene of their labours. Let no one be in doubt, then, how much assiduity and application, even in the very humblest of objects, can upon every occasion effect! Ants are the only living beings, besides man, that bestow burial on the dead. In Sicily there are no winged ants to be found.