270 



ANTS. 



them in the nests, although lie was unable to ascertain the purpose of 

 these activities. All <l<>u1>t was removed, however, by Moggridge's 

 excellent work, which was carried out at .Mcnlone in 1X71 and iSjj on 

 Messor hurbanis and stntctor, the very species that had been ob>crved 

 by the ancients, lie opened the nests of these ants and studied their 

 granaries, which are llat chambers connected by galleries and irregu- 

 larly scattered over an area sometimes nearly 2 m. in diameter and to 

 a depth of about 35 <-"iu. in the soil, lie saw the workers collect the 

 >ccds from the ground or even pluck them from the plants, remove 



, r r*H&*\3 



' .', * " 



C i 



/* * 



. - 



( 



FIG. 152. Nest of Messor f>cr<ui<lci in Arizona desert, in a spot where the 

 alkali prevents the growth of nearly all plants except Sii(rda. The dark material at 

 the border of the crater is seeds and chaff rejected by the ants. In more favor- 

 able spots in the desert the seeds produce the ring of plants seen in Fig. 154. 

 (Original.) 



their envelopes and cast the chaff and empty capsules on the kitchen 

 middens outside the nest. During the winter a nest of the average 

 size may contain as much as a quarter of a liter of seeds. Among the 

 stores in the granaries he was able to recognize seeds belonging to at 

 least eighteen different families of plants. In confirmation of Pliny 

 and Plutarch he maintains that the ants bite off the radicle to prevent 

 the seeds from germinating, a process which is also arrested by bring- 



