Ant is the popular name for hymenopterous (or membranous-winged) insects of various genera of the super-family Formicoidea. Ants are found in most temperate and tropical regions. They are small but powerful insects, and have long been noted for 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 neuters, 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 labours of the ant-hill or abode of the community; they excavate the galleries, procure food, and feed the larvae 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 as attentively 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 pupae about to acquire their perfect growth. Some communities possess a special type of neuters, known as 'soldiers,' from the duties that specially fall upon them, and from their powerful biting jaws.
There is a very considerable variety in the materials, size, and form of ant-hills, or nests, according to the peculiar nature or instinct of the species. Most of the British 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. One little yellow ant (Myrmica domestica) is common in houses in Britain in some localities. 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 antennae they cause them to emit the sweet fluid, 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 European Red 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 larvae and pupae,which they carry off to their own nests to be carefully reared and kept as slaves. Amazon Ants (Polyergus rufescens) often keep between three and five times as many slaves as their own inhabitants in a nest.
In temperate countries male and female ants survive, at most, until 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 when they require food is during the season of activity, when they have a vast number of young to feed. Some ants of southern Europefeed 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.
In the 1990's a new species of ant, in appearance the same as any common garden ant, was discovered in Budapest and in 2009 the same species was found in Britain, which has a suicidal attraction to electrical fields - an attraction which overides even the desire to eat. Like American fire-ants, these ants are drawn in vast quantities to electrical switches where they die and can cause failure of the electrical system due to the numbers of ants involved, typically hundreds of thousands. In Texas, fire-ants are a major cause of traffic light failures, being drawn to the switch boxes where they die and short out the circuits. Research Ant
Arminius Vambery was a Hungarian traveller and Oriental scholar. He was born in 1832 and died in 1913. He studied at Vienna and Pest universities, and in 1854 went to Constantinople (Istanbul), where he taught French. After studying Arabic and Persian dialects he went to Turkistan in 1861, disguised as a dervish ; thence to Persia, where he joined a caravan of pilgrims returning from Mecca, and travelled with them to Khiva. Thence he passed to Bokhara and Samarkand, making his way back to Persia via Herat, in 1864. Returning to Budapest, he became professor of Turkish and other Oriental languages. His principal works include The Coming Struggle for India, 1885; and Western Culture in Eastern Lands, 1906. He published his Autobiography in 1884, and The Story of My Struggles in 1904. Research Arminius Vambery
Arminius Vambery was a Hungarian traveller and Oriental scholar. He was born in 1832 and died in 1913. He studied at Vienna and Pest universities, and in 1854 went to Constantinople (Istanbul), where he taught French. After studying Arabic and Persian dialects he went to Turkistan in 1861, disguised as a dervish ; thence to Persia, where he joined a caravan of pilgrims returning from Mecca, and travelled with them to Khiva. Thence he passed to Bokhara and Samarkand, making his way back to Persia via Herat, in 1864. Returning to Budapest, he became professor of Turkish and other Oriental languages. His principal works include The Coming Struggle for India, 1885; and Western Culture in Eastern Lands, 1906. He published his Autobiography in 1884, and The Story of My Struggles in 1904. Research Arminius Vambery
Arminius Vambery was a Hungarian traveller and orientalist. He was born in 1832 and died in 1913. He travelled through Armenia and Persia between 1861 and 1864 and was the Professor of Oriental languages at the University of Budapest until 1905. Research Arminius Vambery
Arthur Koestler was an Anglo-Hungarian author. He was born in 1905 at Budapest and died in 1983. After training in science at Vienna he became a journalist and after travelling joined the Communist party in 1931, but broke from it in 1938. He was imprisoned by the Nazis in France during the Second World War but escaped to England and after the Second World War became a British subject. Research Arthur Koestler
Sir Mark Aurel Stein was a Hungarian-born British archaeologist and explorer. He was born in 1862 at Budapest and died in 1943. Educated in Germany and England, as head of LahoreOriental College from 1888 to 1899 he made researches in Kashmir. After entering the Indian educational service and receiving British naturalisation, he conducted three expeditions principally to Chinese Turkistan from 1900 to 1901, from 1906 to 1908 and from 1913 until 1916, which resulted in valuable additions for the British Museum and the Delhi central museum. In 1912 he was knighted. Research Aurel Stein
Joseph Pulitzer was an American newspaper proprietor and philanthropist. He was born in 1847 at Budapest, Hungary and died in 1911. Going to the USA in 1864, Joseph Pulitzer served in the 1st New York Cavalry during the Civil War. In 1876 and 1877 he was correspondent of the New York Sun in Washington and Europe, before in 1878 buying the St Louis Dispatch, which he amalgamated with The Evening Post under the new title of 'The Post-Dispatch'. In 1883 he acquired 'The New York World'. Joseph Pulitzer founded and endowed the school of journalism at Columbia University. Research Joseph Pulitzer
Leopold Auer was an American violinist. He was born in 1845 at Veszprem, Hungary and died in 1930. He studied in Budapest and Vienna and with the celebrated Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim in Germany. Through a friendship with the pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein, then director of the Conservatory of SaintPetersburg, Auer was appointed professor of violin at that institution in 1868. In 1883 he became a Russian subject. He was soloist to the tsar's court and founded the first important string quartet in Russia. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Auer gave concerts abroad. His first American recital was in 1924. In 1926 he became an American citizen. He was particularly known as a great violin teacher; his pupils included the American violinists Mischa Elman and Jascha Heifetz. Research Leopold Auer
Paul Abraham was a Hungarian composer. He was born in 1892 at Apatin and died in 1960. He studied at Budapest from 1910 to 1916 and in 1927 was appointed conductor with the Budapest Hauptstadtischen Operettentheater, where his first operetta, 'Der Gatte des Fraeuleins' , was performed in 1928. Moving to Berlin, he later left when his music was banned by the Nazis and he travelled first to Vienna and then Paris and the USA before returning to Germany after the war. Research Paul Abraham
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