33 2 ANTS. 



drops mav be clearlv -mi scattered over the young fungus garden. 

 According to my observations, this performance is repeated usually 

 once or twice an hour, and sometimes, to be sun-, even more frequently. 

 It can almost always be observed a number of times in succei<>n when 

 a mother ant that has no fungus, as sometimes happens in the cultures, 

 is given a piece of fungus belonging to another Atta female or from 

 an older colon}'. The mother ant is visibly excited while she explores 

 the gift with her antennas, and usually in a few minutes begins to 

 divide it up and rebuild it. At such times she first applies each piece 

 to her vent in the manner above described and drenches it with a fecal 

 droplet." From these observations Huber concludes that the droplet 

 must be liquid excrement and that the fungus owes its growth to this 

 method of. manuring. A direct use of malaxated eggs for this purpose 

 was never observed and could not be detected by microscopical exami- 

 nation, although a number of observations showed that the same result 

 may be accomplished indirectly, namely, by the female eating her own 

 eggs. This habit is so common and apparently so normal that Huber 

 estimates that nine out of every ten eggs are devoured by the mother, 

 often as soon as they are laid. The life of the Atta female in her little 

 cell during all this time is very rhythmical. At regular intervals she 

 conscientiously examines the walls of the cavity, flattens out the earth, 

 etc. She devotes more time to licking and manuring the fungus garden 

 and, of course, lavishes most care on the brood. As soon as the larvae 

 appear the)' are fed directly with eggs thrust into their mouths by their 

 mother. Huber concludes that this is their normal diet till the first 

 workers hatch. He never saw the female either eating the fungus 

 mycelium herself or feeding it to the young. As proof of this conten- 

 tion he cites the case of one of his Atta queens who brought up a 

 brood without a fungus garden. With the appearance of the firstling 

 workers, which are minims, that is, workers of the smallest worker 

 caste, a change comes over the colony. They begin to usurp the func- 

 tions of the mother ant. They manure the garden, which at the time 

 of their appearance measures hardly more than 2.5 cm. in diameter, 

 and feed the larvae with their mother's eggs. The workers themselves, 

 however, feed on the " kohlrabi " which has been developing on the 

 hyphse in the meantime. After about a week some of the workers 

 begin to dig in the earth, and ten days after the appearance of the fir>t 

 worker and seven weeks after the inception of the colony, they break 

 through to the surface of the soil and surround the entrance of the 

 nest with a tiny crater of earthen pellets. They now begin to bring 

 pieces of leaves, cut and knead them up into minute wads, and insert 

 them in the fungus garden. The method of manuring the garden with 



