THE HARl'ESTING ANTS. 289 



routine business of bringing in seeds. Later in the afternoon innum- 

 erable fertilized and dealated females which had descended from their 

 flight, were running hither and thither over the ground in search of 

 suitable places in which to establish their formicaries. At nightfall a 

 terrific shower, amounting almost to a cloud-burst, descended on the 

 country. \Yheii I arose the following morning the weather was clear 



FIG. 164. Section of nest of Pogonomyrmex occiJcutulis. showing arrange- 

 ment of chambers and of some of the connecting galleries. (Photograph hy G. 

 A. Dean.) 



again, but I was unable to find a single female on the rain-scoured soil. 

 One and all had been swept into the streams that were booming through 

 the gullies and canons on their way to the Colorado River. At 12 M. 

 I saw about the entrance of a nest a few males and virgin females 

 and on digging into it detected several others. An examination of 



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