Ants: Knox’s ‘six sorts’
View(s):By Richard Boyle
The powers of observation displayed by Robert Knox in his book An Historical Relation of Ceylon (1681) are mostly quite remarkable. It’s true he had two decades to perfect his technique; nevertheless, he was basically an inexperienced young man in his 20s and 30s who had truncated his education in order to go to sea.
It’s also true he had help (how much is not clear) in preparing his manuscript – the scientist Robert Hooke played a significant role. But it gave Knox the opportunity to present his observations in a fashion that exceeded the literary limits demonstrated in his correspondence. His text is a perfect blend of the engaging and informative, conveniently located in a key historical period in an area of the island not yet open to outsiders. No surprise, then, that it has been quoted extensively by most of the 19th- and early 20th- century English writers who ventured to describe the island. Furthermore, in the modern era, it has taken on a new dimension for Sri Lankan and overseas researchers alike.
Knox describes just six sorts of the island’s ants (actually five as I shall explain later). In fact 180+ species in 61 genera have been recorded. (There are 8,800 species worldwide, and Sri Lanka possesses the smallest.) Such local abundance, coupled with the fact that Knox was no naturalist, makes it difficult to label some of his ant descriptions with absolute certainty. Nevertheless, JHO Paulusz, who edited the second edition of Knox’s book (1989), has attempted to do so, and his identifications are included below.
“There are Ants of several sorts, and some worthy of remark,” Knox begins his account. “First of all there are the Coumbias,” (kumbiya) “a sort of small reddish Ants like ours in England. “Secondly, the Tale-Coumbias,” (tel-kumbiya or kalu kumbiya: Formica nidificans) “as small as the former but blackish. They usually live in hollow Trees or rotten Wood, and will sting most terribly.
“Thirdly the Dimbios,” (plural of dimiya: Formica smaragdina) “great red Ants. These make their nests upon the Boughs of great Trees, bringing the leaves together in clusters, it may be as big as a man’s head; in which they lay their Eggs and breed. There will be oftentimes many nests of these upon one Tree, insomuch that the people are afraid to go up to gather the Fruits lest they should be stung by them.”
Perhaps Knox should have mentioned that after the leaves die, these nests become easy to detect, even when high up in a tree. Sometimes the nests are dislodged during a storm and fall to the ground, as happens in my patch of forest. I feel sure that if Knox had examined one after its occupants had trailed off to reconstruct their arboreal kingdom, he would have discovered something worthy to report. The leaves, beautifully layered, are held together with a white, fibrous almost silk-like substance. In fact such ants weave the leaves tight using silk-producing larvae.
“A fourth sort of Ants are those they call Coura-atch.” (Coura-atch: (perhaps) Formica latibrosa.) “They are great and black, living in the ground. Their daily practice is to bring up earth from the ground, making great hollow holes in the Earth, somewhat resembling Cony-burrows [rabbit burrows] only these are less, and run straight downwards for some way, and then turn away into divers paths underground. In many places there are so many of these holes, that Cattle are ready to break their Legs as they go. These do not sting.”
Knox’s descriptions of the fifth and sixth sorts are real gems. Of the fifth sort, Knox displays surprising bewilderment at their behaviour, (“I do not know where they are going, nor what their business”) and makes an amusing comparison concerning their haste (“as if full of employment as People that pass along the Streets”). Furthermore, he defends their honour with regards the use of their sting (“they are of a noble nature: for they will not begin”). Finally, he reveals that their painful bite was, according to “a currant [sic] fable”, invested by the cobra in admiration of their courage.
“A fifth is the Coddia” (kadiya: genus Myrmica) “of an excellent bright black . . . They dwell in the ground; and their usual practice is to be travelling in great multitudes, but I do not know where they are going, nor what their business is; but they pass and repass, some forwards some backwards in great haste, seeming as if full of employment as People that pass along the Streets. These Ants will bite desperately, as bad as if a man were burnt with a coal of fire. But they are of a noble nature: for they will not begin; and you may stand by them, if you do not tread upon them nor disturb them.
“The reason their bite is thus terribly painful is this: Formerly these Ants went to ask a Wife of the Noya, a venomous and noble kind of snake [the cobra], and because they had such an high spirit to dare to offer to be related to such a generous creature, they had this virtue bestowed upon them, that they should sting after this manner. And if they had obtained a Wife of the Noya, they should have had the privilege to have stung full as bad as he. This is a currant Fable among the Chingulays. Though undoubtedly they chiefly regard the wisdom that is concealed under this, and the rest of their Fables.”
As mentioned earlier the sixth sort is not an ant. It is a termite. However, in Knox’s day termites were considered ants, even termed “white ants”. So I won’t impose 21st-century logic and delete this sort because it doesn’t ‘belong’.
“There is a sixth sort called Vaeos,” (veya: Termes bellicosus) “All the whole Earth doth swarm with them. They are of a middle size, the hinder part white, and the head red. They eat and devour all that they can come at; as besides food, Cloth, Wood, Thatch of Houses and everything excepting Iron and Stone. They creep up the walls of houses, and build an Arch made of dirt over themselves all the way as they climb, be it never so high. This Vermin does exceedingly annoy the Chingulays . . . they are continually looking upon anything they value, to see if any of these Vaeos have been at it. Which they may easily perceive by this Case of dirt, which they cannot go up anywhere without building as they go.”
“In places where there are no houses they will raise great Hills like Butts, some four or five or six foot high; which are so hard and strong, that it would be work enough to dig them down with Pick-Axes. The Chingulays call these Humbosses (humbasa, singular, humbas, plural). Within they are full of hollow Vaults and Arches where they dwell and breed, and their nests are much like Honeycombs, full of eggs and young ones. These Humbosses are built with a pure refined Clay by the ingenious builders. The people use this Clay to make their Earthen Gods of, because it is so pure and fine.”
“This sort of creatures as they increase in multitudes, so they die in multitudes also. For when they come to maturity they have wings, and in the Evening after the going down of the Sun, (never before) all those that are fledged and ripe, will issue forth in such vast numbers, that they do almost darken the Sky, flying to such an height, and so keep flying till they fall down dead at last upon the Earth. The Birds that tarry up late, and are not yet gone to roost, fly among them and make good Suppers of them.”
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