ant Summary and Overview

(Heb. nemalah, from a word meaning to creep, cut off, destroy), referred to in Prov. 6:6; 30:25, as distinguished for its prudent habits. Many ants in Israel feed on animal substances, but others draw their nourishment partly or exclusively from vegetables. To the latter class belongs the ant to which Solomon refers. This ant gathers the seeds in the season of ripening, and stores them for future use; a habit that has been observed in ants in Texas, India, and Italy.

(Heb. nemalah). This insect is mentioned twice in the Old Testament: in #Pr 6:6; 30:25| In the former of these passages the diligence of this insect is instanced by the wise man as an example worthy of imitation; in the second passage the ant's wisdom is especially alluded to; for these insects "though they be little on the earth, are exceeding wise." (For a long time European commentators and naturalists denied that ants stored up grain for future use, as was asserted in Proverbs but while this is true of most of the 104 European species, two of those species do lay up food, and are called harvesting ants. Like species have been found in Texas and South America, and are known to exist in Israel. They show many other proofs of their skill. Some of them build wonderful houses; these are often several stories high, sometimes five hundred times the height of the builders, with rooms, corridors, and vaulted roofs supported by pillars. Some species keep a kind of cows; others have a regular army of soldiers; some keep slaves --"No closer imitation of the ways of man could be found in the entire animal economy." (See Encyc. Brit.) McCook's "The Honey Ants" gives many curious facts about the habits of this peculiar kind of ant, and of the harvesting ants of the American plains.--ED.)

ANT . Prov 6:6 and Prov 30:25. A small insect remarkable for industry, economy, and architectural skill. These creatures are called by an inspired Writer "exceeding wise," Prov 30:24, and Cicero was so filled with wonder at their wisdom that he declared they must have mind, reason, and memory. The ants were described by the ancients "as ascending the stalks of cereals and gnawing off the grains, while others below detached the seed from the chaff" and carried it home; as gnawing off the radicle to prevent germination, and spreading their stores in the sun to dry after wet weather." The proverb ''As provident as an ant" was no less common among the people of the Mediterranean shores than "As busy as a bee" is with us. Hesiod spoke of the time-- "When the provident one [the ant] harvests the grain." Naturalists and commentators for a long time have been accustomed to deny the truth of such ideas. It is, however, now acknowledged that in such warm climates as Palestine these insects are dormant but a short time during the cooler season, and that they do store up large quantities of grain and seed, and dry them after rain. The writer has often seen in Judaea a quart or two of chaff and seeds upon ant-hills. This the ants were bringing out to dry in the morning, and carrying into their nests as it grew damp toward night. J. T. Muggridge, F. L. S., advances proof to confirm the ancient view, in the case of two species common around the Mediterranean. He has discovered the granaries, sometimes excavated in solid rock, in which the seeds are stored. He has seen the ants in the act of collecting seeds, and traced seeds to the granaries; he has seen them bring out the grains to dry after a rain, and nibble off the radicle from those which were germinating, and feed on the seed so collected. From these granaries Mr.M. collected the seeds of fifty-four species of plants. In one instance the masses of seeds of clover and other small plants taken from a single nest weighed, by careful estimate, over a pound. That the amount of grain gathered by ants was not unworthy of notice appears from the fact that the Mishna, or traditionary law of the Jews, adjudicates upon the ownership of such stores when found by the people. Of the 104 species of European ants, only two are known to store seeds. But these two, called "harvesting-ants," are abundant in the Levant; hence the familiarity of the ancients with them. The prudence of this insect, as well as its industry, may therefore properly instruct us. That the ant is in every respect "exceeding wise" is evident from its history and habits, which have been investigated by modern naturalists. Their habitations are constructed with regular stories, sometimes to the number of thirty or forty, and have large chambers, numerous vaulted ceilings covered with a single roof, long galleries and corridors, with pillars or columns of very perfect proportions. The materials of their buildings, such as earth, leaves, and the fragments of wood, are tempered with rain, and then dried in the sun. By this process the fabric becomes so firm and compact that a piece may be broken out without any injury to the surrounding parts; and it is so nearly impervious that the longest and most violent rains never penetrate more than a quarter of an inch. They are well sheltered in their chambers, the largest of which is placed nearly in the centre of the building. It is much higher than the rest, and all the galleries terminate in it. In this apartment they spend the night and the cold months, during which they are torpid, or nearly so, and require not the food which they lay up. To illustrate their industry and immense labor, it is said that their edifices are more than five hundred times the height of the builders, and that if the same proportion were preserved between human dwellings and those who build them, our houses would be four or five times higher than the pyramids of Egypt, the largest of which is four hundred and eighty feet in height, and requires a base of seven hundred feet square to support it. The largest of one species of ant (the South American) does not stand more than a quarter of an inch high, while their nests or houses are from twelve to twenty feet high, and large enough to hold a dozen men.

(Proverbs 6:6-8; Proverbs 30:25; "provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.") So Hesiod, Works and Days, 776; Horace, Sat., 1:1, 33; Virgil, AEneid, 4:402; Plautus, Trinummus, 2:4, 1, 7; AElian, Natura Animal., 2:25, 6:43; AEsop's Fables, 92 (Tauchnitz edition). Ants in northern Europe lie dormant in winter; and do not feed on grain, but flesh of other insects, worms, birds, the honeydew of aphides, and saccharine matter, exuding from trees. But in southern Europe there are species which feed on grain and store it for winter use. Solomon implies, the ant providently and diligently uses the proper seasons for obtaining her food, though she has "no guide, overseer, or ruler," such as man has in parents, teachers, and masters; therefore men are inexcusable in sluggishness. "Redeem the time" (Greek favorable season) is the spiritual lesson (Ephesians 5:16). There is no monarch, such as the queen is among bees; but ants labor together as a republic, having "no ruler" as Solomon describes. Moggridge (Harvesting Ants) has by observation proved that there are four harvesting ants on the Riviera, namely,: Atta barbara, under two forms, the one wholly black, the other red headed; Atta structor, claret brown colored; and Atta megacephala or Pheidole, a minute bodied, yellow ant, with great head, which works chiefly at night. The Atta barbara, mounting the stem of a fruiting plant as shepherd's purse, and seizing a green pod in its jaws, and fixing its hind legs as a pivot, turns round and round and strains the fibers until they snap. Ants sometimes allow the capsules which they have cut to drop, and their companions below carry them away. Neither the Atta barbara nor the structor bring aphids into their nests. A host of ants seek and bring in the grain; others sort the materials, strip off the useless envelopes of seed or grain, and carry them out to throw away. Moggridge found masses of seeds stored in chambers and long subcylindrical galleries prepared in the soil. The granaries on a rock covered with earth lay horizontally from one and a half to six inches below the surface. The ants have some mysterious power which checks germination. The few seeds which may germinate the ants prevent from further growth by cutting off the end of the radicle. Hebrew "ant," nemalah, is derived by some from Arabic for" clever." The Arabs put one in the new-born infant's hand, saying, "May he prove clever!" Others take it from namal, Hebrew "cut off," the body being cut into segments, joined by but a slight thread. Similarly in Proverbs 30:25 the ants' wisdom is set forth as making up for the absence of the strength of larger creatures. They belong to the family formicidae, and order Hymenoptera. The mutual affection between the members of the republic is conspicuous in ants. In northern Europe ants strike with their antennae and so make the aphids discharge the juice extracted by their suckers from vegetables; the ants in fact make the aphids their milk cows, imprisoning a number in their nests to serve as a supply in winter (Huber). Both the insect masters and the insect cows are torpid in winter in northern Europe; but in warm winters both at times come to life. The Indian ant (Atta, providens), according to Colossians Sykes, raises up heaps of grass seed in January when they ripen, in store for the season of need.