ANSONIA, a city in New Haven co., Conn.; on the Naugatuck river and the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad; 10 miles W. of New Haven. It is widely noted for its extensive manu factures of clocks, and brass, copper, and woolen goods; and has several banks, Young Men's Christian Association and memorial libraries, daily and weekly newspapers, etc. Pop. (1910) 15,152; (1920) 17,643.
ANT, the common name of hymen opterous (membrane-winged) insects of various genera, of the family Formicidx, found in most temperate and tropical regions. They are small but powerful insects, and have long been noted for their remarkable intelligence and inter esting 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 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 re turn to established nests or become the foundresses of new colonies. The neu ters perform all the labors of the ant hill or abode of the community; they ex cavate the galleries, procure food, and feed the larva: 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 the nymphs or pup about to acquire their perfect growth. Some communities possess a special type of neuters, known as "soldiers," from the duties that espe cially fall upon them, and from their powerful biting jaws. Most of American ants form nests in woods, fields, or gar dens, their abodes being generally in the form of small mounds rising above the surface of the ground and contain ing 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 larvm and brought up separately. Their ingenuity in econ
omizing labor, e. g., in dropping desired objects from a height to others waiting below—in overcoming obstacles, e. g., by themselves forming living bridges or building more substantial inanimate ones—in the architectural devices ex hibited by their manifold nests, and in many other ways—has become a com mon subject of deserved admiration though their marvelous powers are as sociated 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 com munities, 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 some times tend on the plants where they feed; sometimes they even superintend their breeding. By stroking the aphides with their antennae, they cause them to emit the sweet fluids, which the ants then greedily sip up. Various i other in sects are looked after by ants in a simi lar manner, or are found in their nests. It has been observed that some species, like the sanguinary ant (formica scot guinea), resort to violence to obtain working ants of other species for their own use, plundering the nests of suit able kinds of their larva? and pupa:, 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 dur ing 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.