Chapter 1 — The Tiny Teacher

The chapter says humans may still learn a few things from the ant — hard work, sense of duty and discipline, cleanliness, care for the young, and, above all, firm loyalty to the land where they live. Because the ant teaches these values through its daily life, it is called the tiny teacher.

Ants use their feelers or antennae to talk to other ants by passing messages through them. When ants move in a row, each ant greets all others coming from the opposite direction by touching their feelers.

An anthill is the comfortable home or nest of ants. Each anthill has hundreds of little rooms and passages. Some rooms are where the queen lays eggs; others are nurseries for grubs; workers have their own reserved quarters; some rooms are storehouses for food; and soldiers have separate barracks.

The queen is the mother of the entire population of the colony. It lives for about fifteen years. After a wedding flight on a hot summer day — during which it meets a male ant (drone) high in the air — it bites off its wings on returning to earth and then does nothing but lay eggs.

On a hot summer day the queen leaves the nest and goes out to meet a male ant, or drone, high up in the air. On returning to earth it gets rid of its wings and then spends the rest of its life laying eggs.

Eggs hatch and grubs come out. Soldiers guard the grubs while workers feed, clean, and carry them about daily for airing, exercise, and sunshine. Two or three weeks later the grubs become cocoons and lie without food or activity for three more weeks. Then the cocoons break and complete ants appear. New ants are then taught their duties — as workers, soldiers, builders, cleaners — by old ants, and after a few weeks of training they are ready to go out into the world of work.

According to the chapter, ants allow other creatures to live in their nests for several reasons: some give off a smell pleasant to the ants' senses, others give sweet juices, and some are just pets or playthings like cats and dogs are to human beings.

The greenfly is described as the ants' cow. The ants train it to give honeydew — like milk — with a touch of their antennae, and they milk it just as humans milk the cow.

The chapter says no worker has ever tried to live in a soldier's house, no soldier has ever gone out searching for food, and no worker, soldier, or cleaner has ever harmed a grub. Each ant does its share of work intelligently and bravely and never fights with other members of the group, making ant life very peaceful.

The chapter lists: hard work, sense of duty and discipline, cleanliness, care for the young, and, above all, a firm loyalty to the land where they live.

New ants learn their duties from old ants as workers, soldiers, builders, cleaners, etc. After a few weeks of training, the small ants are ready to go out into the big world of work.

Yes. The NCERT PDF for An Alien Hand Chapter 1 — The Tiny Teacher — is available free on CBSE PrepMaster. No sign-up or payment is needed; you can read or download it directly from the app.