Ant Song

 

蚂蚁之歌

Ant Song

 

In order to enlighten human beings, the God of the Snow Land made the Bodhisattva of Wisdom incarnate as Agudengba to go to the people to help the poor, do good and punish evil.

Agudengba came to the foot of the snowy Mount Everest. He was attracted by the strange scenery and mystery here. The land here is sparsely populated and the air is fresh and clean. Snow-capped peaks, lush primeval forests, rhododendrons all over the slopes, endless rivers and quiet lakes. There is no disturbing pollution here, and it still maintains its original purity.

Agudengba lay flat on the grassland, eating tsampa while admiring the snowy scenery. At this time, a few little ants crawled onto his arms. It turned out that they smelled the fragrance of tsampa.

Agudengba put a small piece of tsampa in his hand, and soon many ants came running over.

Ants can be found in almost every corner of the land except for the two levels of the earth and the extremely cold areas above the snow line of mountains. Ants have typical social group characteristics. The ant colony is divided into queen ants, male ants, soldier ants, and worker ants. Ant colonies cooperate with each other, caring for the young, establishing a clear division of labor, and the offspring taking care of the previous generation for a period of time.

When ants establish a colony, they start by meeting and making friends through marriage flights. Male and female ants fall in love at first sight after meeting each other and mate during or after flight. The "groom" did not live long and died shortly after mating, leaving the "widow" queen ant to live a lonely life alone.

As the founder of the ant colony, after the queen ant has gloriously completed the task of mating, she descends from the air to the ground, breaks her four wings from the roots, and then digs a shaft by herself, leading directly to the ground, to carve out a small house for herself. . At this time, the queen ant became "lonely" and had limited strength. She could only use the temporary chamber as a "conceived" delivery room. After the eggs in the body mature and are produced, the larvae hatch and the queen gets busy. She feeds each larva mouth-to-mouth until the larvae form cocoons or pupate and emerge into adult ants.

Many of these adult ants are worker ants. The growth of the first batch of worker ants depends entirely on the energy carried by the queen. In the closed nest, there is no energy supplement. When the first group of worker ants grow up, they dig holes leading to the outside world in search of food, and then expand the nest building area to provide housing for more and more family members. Worker ants are responsible for a series of tasks such as building and defending nests, collecting food, and feeding young ants. They are the most tiring occupation among ants.

Once the first batch of adult worker ants have grown up, the queen will have a new source of food. From then on, the queen ant, who had suffered so much, enjoyed peace and prosperity and became the commander-in-chief of the large family of this group.

Hiding in an isolated hole, the queen ant also has to be wary of other animals invading the ant colony. So the soldier ants took on the task of fighting. As the name suggests, soldier ants are responsible for protecting the ant nest and the safety of all ants in the ant nest. Soldier ants have large heads and mandibles, so feeding is very difficult. Therefore, in an ant colony, soldier ants do not forage on their own, but rely on worker ants to feed them. Soldier ants generally do not work.

Soldier ants are sterile female ants, the female soldiers among ants. Soldier ants are also called maxillary soldiers. Soldier ants are special workers in ant society. Soldier ants have three chemical defense capabilities. First, when soldier ants use their well-developed upper jaws to bite the attacking enemy, they immediately secrete toxic or irritating chemicals from their frontal glands and inject them into the enemy through the wound, causing the enemy to attack. Secondly, soldier ants use their enlarged upper lips shaped like paint brushes to apply contact poisons on their enemies. These poisons are poisonous secretions of chemical reaction vinegar derived from fatty acids. The third is the glue spraying method, in which soldier ants spray an irritating, sticky barrier agent or toxic chemical substance on the enemy. Soldier ants can secrete chemicals from their frontal glands to form a strong chemical defense line against intruders.

  In order to thank Agudengba for giving them tsampa to taste, many ants happily danced the snowy "concordance" dance on his palms and sang "The Song of Ants":

 

We are a group of happy ants,

We all have our own division of labor:

Worker ants are responsible for building beautiful homes,

And stock up on our food.

Soldier ants are responsible for protecting our territory,

And fight against invading enemies.

The queen ant is the leader of our colony,

She is also the most beloved mother.

We look like we are only as big as a grain of rice,

But we are all powerful,

we can lift

Something that exceeds 400 times its own weight,

we are able to haul

An object that exceeds 1,700 times its own weight.

We never quarrel,

We are hardworking and simple,

We understand the power of unity.

We hold hands,

Walk bravely forward in the long queue.

We hold hands,

Dance happily in a circle.

We are not a piece of sand,

We share our responsibilities,

We share collective happiness,

We share the happiness brought by labor,

We share the success that comes from unity.