Chapter 7 Insects: Bees, Cats and Red Ants

I hope to know more stories about bees.I have heard of the bee's ability to orient itself, and wherever it has been thrown, it will always find its way back.So I wanted to try it myself. One day, I caught forty bees in a hive under the eaves, and told my youngest daughter, Egland, to wait under the eaves. Then I put the bees in paper bags, walked with them for two and a half miles, and opened them. Paper bags, leave them there and see if any bees come back. In order to distinguish whether the bees that flew under the eaves of my house were the swarm that I threw away, I made a white mark on the back of the swarm of abandoned bees.In the process, my hand was inevitably stabbed several times, but I persisted, and sometimes I even forgot my pain, just pressed the bee tightly, and finished the work. Many of them were damaged. When I opened the paper bag, the bees that had been stuffy for a long time swarmed out and flew in all directions, as if they were distinguishing which direction to go home from.

There was a breeze in the air as the bees were released.The bees fly very low, almost touching the ground, probably this can reduce the resistance of the wind, but I think, how can they fly so low to see their distant homeland? On the way home, I thought about the harsh environment they faced, and speculated in my heart that they must be in the direction of my home.But before I could step into the house, Eggland rushed over, her face flushed and she looked excited.She yelled at me, "Two bees have come back! Arrived at the nest at two forty, and they're full of pollen." The time for me to release the bees is exactly two o'clock.That is to say, in about three quarters of an hour, the two little bees flew for two and a half miles, not including the time for collecting pollen.

As it was getting dark that day, we hadn't seen any other bees come back.But when I checked the hive the next day, I saw fifteen more bees with white marks on their backs returning to the hive.In this way, seventeen out of twenty did not lose their way, and they returned home without error, despite the contrary wind in the sky, and despite the strange scenery along the way.But they do come back.Perhaps it is because they miss the nestlings and the abundance of honey.With this strong instinct, they come back.Yes, this is not an extraordinary memory, but an inexplicable instinct, which is what we humans lack.

Cats I have never believed in the saying that cats, like bees, can know their way home.I couldn't believe it until one day my cat did it. One day, I saw an unattractive kitten in the garden. Under the thin fur, there were sections of the back, and it was skinny.My children were very young at that time, and they took pity on the kitten, and they would often give it some bread, and a piece of it was spread with milk.The kitten happily ate several slices and then left.Although we kept calling it softly behind it, "Mimi, Mimi—", it still left without complaint.But after a while, the kitten was hungry again.It climbed down from the wall and ate a few slices.The children caressed its thin body pitifully, their eyes full of sympathy.

I had a talk with the kids and we agreed to domesticate him.Later, it lived up to expectations and grew into a little "jaguar" with red hair, black stripes, a tiger head and a tiger head, and sharp claws.Its nickname is "Ahu".Later, Ah Hu had a partner, and she also wandered from elsewhere.The two of them later gave birth to a lot of little tigers.Regardless of the changes in my family, I have adopted them for about twenty years. When we first moved, we were very worried about them. If we abandoned these beloved cats, they would suffer a stray life again.But if they were taken with them, the female cat and the kittens could still hold their breath and keep quiet, but two big tomcats—an old tiger and a young tiger—would never be quiet on the journey.In the end we decided this way: take the old tiger away, leave the little tiger here, and find another home for it.

My friend Dr. Loller is willing to take in the little tiger.So one night we put the cat in a basket and took it to his house.We talked about the cat at dinner when we got back, and how lucky he was to find a home.While talking, suddenly something jumped in from the window.We were all taken aback, and when we looked carefully, this messy thing rubbed its body on our legs happily and affectionately. It was the little tiger who had been given away. The next day, we heard the story about it: it was locked in a bedroom when it arrived at Dr. Lawler's house.When it found itself a prisoner in a strange place, it jumped about frantically.Jumping now on furniture, now on the mantelpiece, banging on the panes, seeming to smash everything.Mrs. Laurel, frightened by the little madman, opened the window, and it jumped out of the window.After a few minutes, it returned to its original home.This is not an easy task, it almost runs from one end of the village to the other, it has to go through many intricate streets, during which it may encounter thousands of dangers, or meet naughty children, or encounter Vicious dogs, and several bridges, our cat was unwilling to go around in circles to cross the bridge, he decided to take the shortest path, so he bravely jumped into the water - his wet fur told us everything.

I feel so sorry for this kitten who is so devoted to his family.We all agreed to take him along, and just when we were worried that he would be restless on the road, the problem was solved automatically.A few days later we found it lying stiff under a bush in the garden.Someone has poisoned it for me.Who did it?This kind of action is not out of good intentions! And that old tiger.When we left the old house, we couldn't find it no matter what.So we gave the coachman another two yuan and asked him to be responsible for finding the old tiger, and whenever he found it, he had to bring it to his new home.When the coachman came with the last load of furniture, he brought the old tiger with him.He hid it under his seat.When I opened this mobile prison box and saw the prisoner who was locked in two days ago, I couldn't believe it was my old tiger.

When it ran out, it looked like a terrible beast, its paws were flailing, its mouth was drooling, its lips were covered with white foam, its eyes were full of blood, its hair was standing on end, and it was completely dead. Without the original Ah Hu's demeanor and demeanor.Is it crazy?I examined it carefully.I finally understood that it wasn't crazy, it was just scared.Perhaps the driver had frightened him when he was caught, or the long journey had exhausted him.I can't be sure what the reason is, but it is obvious that its personality has changed drastically. It no longer mutters words, no longer rubs our legs with its body, and only has a gruff expression and deep melancholy.Even the comfort of kindness cannot relieve its pain.Finally one day we found it dead, lying on a heap of ashes in front of the fire, melancholy and old age having ended its life.If it has enough energy, will it go back to our old house?I can't tell.However, such a little creature, because its aging physical strength does not allow it to return to its hometown, finally got homesick and died of depression. This is always a touching thing!

When we moved for the second time, Ah Hu's family had completely changed: the old one died, and the new one was born.Among them is an adult cub who looks exactly like its predecessors.Only it will increase our troubles when moving.As for the kittens and mothers, they are easy to subdue.Just put them in one basket, but the little tiger has to be put in another basket by himself, lest he make trouble for everyone.In this way, it was safe and sound along the way.When we arrived at the new house, we took the female cats out of the basket first.As soon as they got out of the basket, they began to inspect and inspect the new house, looking at it one by one, relying on their pink noses, they sniffed out the smell of the familiar furniture.They found their own tables, chairs, and bunks, but their surroundings did change.They made a slight "meow" sound in surprise, and there was a suspicious look in their eyes from time to time.We pet them lovingly and give them basins of milk to feast on.The next day they were used to it as if they were at home.

But when it was our little Ah Hu's turn, the situation was completely different.We put him in the attic to let him get used to the new environment, there are a lot of empty rooms where he can play freely.We take turns to accompany it, give it double food, and catch the rest of the cats to keep it company all the time.We want him to know that he is not alone in this new home.We did everything we could to make it forget its original home.Sure enough, it really does seem to forget.Whenever we pet it, it looks very gentle and docile. When we call it, it will come over with a "mimi" and arch its back.After a week of confinement in this way, we felt that it was time to restore its freedom, so we released it from the attic.It went into the kitchen and stood at the table with the other cats.Later it went into the garden again.My daughter Egland stared at it closely to see what strange behavior it had, and saw that it made a very naive look, looked around, looked around, and finally returned to the house.Great, little Ah Hu will never run away again.

The next day, when we called it, no matter how many times we yelled "Mipappa-", there was no sign of it!We searched and called for it, but to no avail.fraud!fraud!We fell for it!It still left, I said it went back to its hometown.But the rest of the family didn't believe it. My two daughters went back to their hometown specially for this purpose.As I said, they found Xiao Hu there.They brought him back in a basket, and although the weather was dry and mudless, his paws and belly were covered with sand and mud, so no doubt he must have crossed the river to go home, when he crossed the In the field, the mud stuck to its wet fur, and our new house is four and a half miles away from our old home! We locked the fugitive in the attic for a full fortnight before releasing him.But in less than a day, it went back again, and we had to resign ourselves to its fate.Later, a neighbor from an old house came to see us and talked about little Ahu, saying that he once saw our cat hiding under the fence with a hare in its mouth.Yes, no one feeds it food anymore, it has to use its own strength to find food.I never heard of it again after that.It must have had a tragic end.It became a robber, and of course it met the fate of a robber. These true stories prove that cats, like mason bees, have the ability to tell directions.The same is true of pigeons, when they are sent hundreds of miles away; they can return to find their old nest.And swallows, and many other birds too.Let us return to the question of insects.Ants and bees are the most similar pair of insects, and I am curious to know whether they have the same ability to distinguish directions as bees. The red ants are on a piece of ruins, and one place is the cottage of the red ants.Red ants are a kind of ants that can neither raise their children nor go out to find food. In order to survive, they have to use immoral methods to plunder the children of black ants and keep them in their own homes. In the future, they will take these as their own Some ants are forever reduced to slaves. On summer afternoons, I often see marches of red ants, about five or six yards long.When they saw a nest of black ants, there was a panic in the front line.A few spy-like ants left the team first and moved forward.A troop of ants is still winding its way forward, sometimes methodically across the path, sometimes looming among the dead leaves of the weeds. Finally, they finally found the nest of the black ants, drove straight into the bedroom of the little ants, and carried them out of the nest.In the nest, the red ants and the black ants had a fierce fight, and finally the black ants were defeated, and had no choice but to let the robbers snatch their children away. Let me tell you how they got back along the way. One day I saw a group of ants marching along the edge of the pond. At that time, there was a strong wind, and many ants were blown off, making a good meal for the fish in vain.This time the fish ate another batch of unexpected food—black ant babies.Obviously ants don't choose another way to go home like bees do, they just go home along the same way. I couldn't spend the whole afternoon on the ants, so I asked my little granddaughter Lacy to keep an eye on them for me.She likes to listen to the stories of ants, and has seen the war of red ants with her own eyes. She is very happy to accept my entrustment.When the weather is fine, little Laxie always squats in the garden, staring at the ground with her small eyes. One day, I heard Lacy's voice in the study, "Come on! The red ant has gone to the house of the black ant!" "Do you know which way they go?" "Yes, I have marked it." "What mark? How did you do it?" "I threw pebbles along the way." I hurried to the garden, and Lacy was right.The red ants are triumphant along that white gravel road!I took a leaf, intercepted a few ants, and put it elsewhere.These few got lost in this way, and the others, relying on their memory, went back along the original path.This proves that they do not directly identify the direction to go home like bees, but find their way home by relying on the memory of the scenery along the way.So even if their journey is long and takes several days and nights, as long as there is no change along the way, they can still come back.