SUPPLYING THE COMMUNAL RATIONS 



captives from the fallen swarm held to their prizes amid 

 all the tumult, until the jam was relieved, and they 

 could get entrance within their nest. Their under- 

 ground granaries were at the time full of stored ant-rice 

 and other seeds, their provision for winter food ; but the 

 eagerness '.with which they welcomed this chance supply 

 of soft, juicy insect flesh showed that their granivorous 

 habit had not weakened their insectivorous taste. 



I have seen the mound-making ants of the Alleghanies 

 make raids upon the workers of our northern species of 

 termites (Termes ftavipes), capturing and carrying them 

 away with an eagerness that showed what precious morsels 

 their soft, white bodies must be to the Formican appetite. 



Here we may consider the vast food supply that lies 

 in the product of certain seed - bearing grasses, the 

 garnering and storing of which has led to the popular 

 names of " agricultural," "farming," and "harvesting" 

 ants. 1 The habit is especially developed in the genera 

 Pogonomyrmex and Pheidole, which collect from the 

 ground and from plants certain grain-like- and nut-like 



Fig. 45 AGRICULTURAL ANT FEEDING FROM A 



HICKORY-NUT KERNEL 



seeds (Fig. 45). These they carry to their nests, and, 

 after removing the husks, and deporting the latter 



1 See the author's Nature's Craftsmen, chap. vi. 



85 



