FEEDING THE COMMUNE 



culture, Prof. J. H. Comstock. Several species therein 

 described were found to prey upon the eggs, the larva?, 

 and the pupa? of the cotton caterpillar over a wide 

 section of our southern territory. 



It is not difficult to suggest a theory as to how the 

 taste for cereal foods may 

 have arisen among ants. 

 Whether it be the true one 

 or not is another matter. 

 Following their habit of gen- 

 eral scouting for supplies, 

 and of putting all promis- 

 ing objects to the test of 

 antennal or gustatory ap- 

 proval, they would be sure 

 to fall upon seeds in the milk 

 Stage. Being then soft and Fi g- 56 SECTIONAL VIEW OF THE 



STOREROOMS OF THE OCCI- 



easily crushed, and to the DENT ANT 



ants a toothsome relish, all r Seed-rooms, rd Dumping- 

 grain-like seeds would soon rooms ^Gliierfes PebbleS ' 

 commend themselves, and 



easily pass into the accepted and fixed menu (Figs. 57 

 and 58). 



As the outer shell gradually hardened, the growing 

 taste for such food would prompt to break it open, and 

 so would come, little by little, the habit of removing the 

 husk. Although the flavor of the seed would change 

 with its ripening, one readily conceives that the taste 

 for it might have a corresponding gradual change; and 

 also the power of utilizing it for food by rasping off or 

 breaking up the starchy substance instead of crushing 

 and lapping it, as in the milk stage. 



In quite the same way the use of nutty or oily seeds 



115 



