ANTS. 



pits that the ants had dug into it to get out the covered up food. 

 When they migrate from one part to another, they also carry with them 

 all the ant-food from their old habitations. That they do not eat the 

 leaves themselves J convinced myself, for J found near the tenanted 

 chambers, deserted ones filled with the refuse particles of leaves that 

 had been exhausted as manure for the fungus, and were now left, and 

 >erved as fund for larvae of Staphylinidce and other beetles. 



" These ants do not confine themselves to leaves, but also carry off 



FIG. 192 



* f > 



:. Two North American species of Trachymyrme.v. (Original.) a, T. 

 turrifcx; b, T. septentrionalis. 



any vegetable substance that they find suitable for growing fungus on. 

 They are very partial to the inside white rind of oranges, and I have 

 also seen them cutting up and carrying off the flowers of certain shrubs, 

 the leaves of which they have neglected. They are very particular 

 about the ventilation of their underground chambers, and have numer- 

 ous holes leading up to the surface from them. These they open out 

 or close up, apparently to keep up a regular degree of temperature 

 below." 



Observations on A. cephalotcs were resumed in 1892 in Trinidad 

 by Tanner, who was the first to study these insects in artificial nests 

 and to prove that not only the adult Attcc but also the larvae feed on 

 the fungus described by Belt. A year later, Alfred Moeller published 

 the most important of existing works on these ants and their relations 

 to the fungi which they cultivate. He studied several Brazilian species 

 of Atta belonging to the subgenus Acromyrmex (discigera, coronata, 

 octospinosa, uiccllcri] and to the genera Aptcrostigma (pilosum, mcelleri, 

 wasmanni, and an undetermined species) and Cyphomyrmex (auritus, 

 strit/iifns). A. octospinosa and discigcra, which nest in the woods, 



