Songtexte Army Ants - Tom Waits

The Whirligig Beetles are wary and
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 Borer is a longhorn beetle,
Their antenna's 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, strange and odd,
With a spiny 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 4 or 5 reports in succession.
The noises sound like miniature popgun blasts and are
Accompanied by a cloud of reddish coloured 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 captor's 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've encountered some of these insects in your communities,
Displaying both their predatory and defense characteristics,
While imbedded within the walls of flesh and
Passing for, what is most commonly recognized...
As human