^86 ANTS. 



one side, but as the crater grows, it becomes circular and eventually 

 surrounds the rut ranee. The marriage flight of califoniicits and its 

 method of establishing colonies are described in a former chapter 

 ( p. 189 ct seq. ). 



P. inolcfaciens ( Fig. 157), the common Texan variety of the Mexi- 

 can barbatns. was first studied by Buckley (1861, 1866, 18671 an( l 

 Lincecum (1862, 1866, 1874) and later by McCook (18790 and myself 

 (1902). The papers of Buckley and Lincecum contain some of the 

 earliest modern observations on harvesting ants. P. inolcfaciens 

 ranges from the seashore at Galveston and Corpus Christi to an alti- 

 tude of 5,000 ft. in western Texas and over 8,000 ft. in Mexico, where 

 it often inhabits the same stations as the typical barbahis. The latter 

 is readily distinguished by its black head and thorax and red gaster, 

 whereas inolcfaciens is ferruginous red throughout. 



The Texan harvester has attracted no little attention on account of 

 Lincecum's statement that it actually sows the seeds of the " ant-rice " 

 (Aristida stricta and oliyantha } around the periphery of its disks or 

 mounds, and cultivates the crop in addition to harvesting and storing 

 it in its granaries. This notion, which even the Texan schoolboy has 

 come to regard as a joke, has been widely cited, largely because Darwin 

 stood sponsor for its publication in the Journal of the Linnean Society. 

 McCook, after spending a few weeks in Texas observing P. inolcfaciens 

 and recording his observations in a book of 310 pages (18790; failed 

 to obtain any evidence either for or against the Lincecum myth. He 

 merely succeeded in extending its vogue by admitting its plausibility. 

 Four years of nearly continuous observations of inolcfaciens and its 

 nests enable me to suggest the probable source of Lincecum's miscon- 

 ception. If the nests of this ant can be studied during the cool winter 

 months and this is the only time to study them leisurely, as the cold 

 subdues the fiery stings of their inhabitants the seeds, which the ants 

 have garnered in many of their chambers will often be found to have 

 sprouted. Sometimes, in fact, the chambers, are literally stuffed with 

 dense wads of seedling grasses and other plants. On sunny days the 

 ants may often be seen removing these seeds when they have sprouted 

 too far to be fit for food and carrying them to the refuse heap, which 

 is always at the periphery of the crater or cleared earthen disk. Here 

 the seeds, thus rejected as inedible, often take root and in the spring 

 form an arc or a complete circle of growing plants around the nest. 

 Since the Pogonomyrmex feeds largely, though by no means exclu- 

 sively, on grass seeds, and since, moreover, the seeds of Aristida are 

 a very common and favorite article of food, it is easy to see why this 

 grass should predominate in the circle. In reality, however, only a 



