ANT COMMUNITIES 



Fig. 34 THE CIRCULAR DISK AND ROADS THAT SURROUND 



THE ONE CENTRAL GATE OF THE AGRICULTURAL 

 ANT OF TEXAS 



But this is only the beginning of the enterprise, the 

 pivot upon which more important undertakings centre. 

 At various points around the circumference of the disk 

 enter a series of cleared trails, widest at their point of 

 contact, that radiate into the surrounding herbage, 

 whose denseness at once suggests the reason for their 

 construction. In short, they are roads laid out to 

 penetrate the harvest fields of these granivorous ants, 

 and are used and admirably adapted for that purpose. 



The method of transportation in use by harvesting 

 and other ants is primitive enough, consisting simply in 

 personal carriage by a host of individuals (Figs. 30, 37, 

 38). It is the method of the African explorer, the 

 method of primitive man when unable to utilize the 

 beast of burden. But it is effective. It is here that 



the engineering quality of the roadways comes in; they 



56 



