Army Ants Songtext
von Tom Waits

The whirligig beetles are wherein fast
With an organ to detect the ripples
The arachnid moths lay their eggs inside
Other insects along the borders of fields
Or roads in clusters of white cocoons

The ribbed pine bore is a long-horned beetle
Their antennas are half the length of their body
And they feed on dead red pine

Robber flies with their immobile heads
Inject a paralyzing fluid into their prey
That they snatch from life in mid-air

The snow flea′s mode of locomotion's
Strange and odd
With a spine-y tail mechanism
With hooks and a protracted tube
From the abdomen to enable moisture absorption


The female praying mantis devours the male while they are mating
The male sometimes continues copulating even after the
Female has bitten off his head
And part of his upper torso

Every night wasps bite into the stem of a plant
Lock their mandibles into position
Stretch out at right angles to the stem
And with legs dangling
They fall asleep

If one places a minute amount of liquor
On a scorpion it will instantly go mad
And sting itself... to death

The bombardier beetle, when disturbed
Defends itself by emitting a series of explosions
Sometimes setting off four or five reports in succession
The noises sound like miniature pop gun blasts
And are accompanied by a cloud of
Reddish-colored, vile smelling fluid


It is commonly known that ants keep slaves
Certain species, the so-called sanguinary ants in particular
Will raid the nests of other ant tribes
And kill the queen
And then kidnap many of the workers
The workers are brought back to the captors hive
Where they are coerced into performing menial tasks

And as we discussed last semester
The army ants will leave nothing but your bones

Perhaps you have encountered some of these insects in your communities
Displaying both their predatory and defense characteristics
While embedded within the walls of flesh and
Passing for what is commonly recognized as human