Book IX, 438

When the burrowing ants, the army of the earth, nibbled at the rustic bee-keeper’s sweet dainty, the old man in anger set the jar in a dish of water, thinking that, being creatures of the land, they would not get to it. But they, setting up fresh stalks of straw against it, quickly found their way, without anyone to steer them, to the vessel. So their dear belly induced even these tiny creatures to migrate from earth to water, the very newest variety of boatmen.