8i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



whence they rolled down to the bottom, where another relay of laborers picked 

 them up and carried them to the new burrow. It was amusing to watch the 

 ants hurrying out with bundles of food, dropping them over the slope, and rush- 

 ing back immediately for more. 



Ants of this genus are very clever at making tunnels. The Rev. 

 H. Clark says that in one case they have made a tunnel of enormous 

 length under the river Parahylia, where this is as broad as the Thames 

 at London their object being to reach a storehouse which is on the 

 opposite bank. This statement is not to be considered so incredible as 

 it at first sight unquestionably appears, for Bates has seen the subter- 

 ranean passages of these ants extending to a distance of seventy yards. 



Harvesting Ants. The harvesting ants belong almost exclusively 

 to a single genus, which, however, comprises a number of species dis- 

 tributed in localized areas over all the four quarters of the globe. 

 Their distinctive habits consist in gathering nutritious seeds of 

 grasses during summer, and storing them in granaries for w^inter con- 

 sumption. We owe our present knowledge concerning these insects 

 mainly to Moggridge, who studied them in the south of Europe, Lin- 

 cecum and McCook, who studied them in Texas ; Colonel Sykes and 

 Dr. Jerdon also made some observations upon them in India. They 

 likew^ise occur in Palestine, where they were clearly known to Solomon 

 and other writers of antiquity, whose claim to accurate observation in 

 this matter has within the last few years been amply vindicated, after 

 having been for many years discredited, on account chiefly of the ad- 

 verse statements of Huber. 



Moggridge found that from the nest in various directions there pro- 

 ceed outgoing trains, which may be thirty or more yards in length, 

 and each consisting of a double row of ants moving in opposite direc- 

 tions. Like the leaf cutting ants, those composing the outgoing train 

 are empty-handed, while those composing the incoming train are laden. 

 But here the burdens are grass-seeds. At their terminations in the 

 foraging-ground, or ant-fields, the insects composing these columns 

 disperse by hundreds among the seed-yielding grasses. They then 

 ascend the stems of the grasses, and, seizing the seed or capsule in 

 their jaws, fix their hind-legs firmly as a pivot, round which they 

 turn and turn till the stalk is twisted off. The ant then descends the 

 stem, 



patiently backing and turning upward again as often as the clumsy and dispro- 

 portionate burden becomes wedged between the thickly-set stalks, and joins 

 the line of its companions to the nest. . . . Two ants sometimes combine their 

 efforts, when one stations itself near the base of the peduncle, and gnaws it at 

 the point of greatest tension, while the other hauls upon it and twists it. ... 1 

 have occasionally seen ants, engaged in cutting the capsules of certain plants, 

 drop them, and allow their companions below to carry them away ; and this 

 corresponds with the curious account given by ^'Elian of the manner in which 

 the spikelets of corn are severed and thrown down *'to the people below." 



