INSTINCT 145 



worker's back and carried home, where they are chopped 

 up by a smaller, second kind of worker and smoothed out 

 into beds on which a certain leaf mold is grown. These beds 

 are constantly attended: undesirable fungi are weeded our, 

 the beds are manured with the ants' own excrement, and 

 there is even a system of underground ventilating shafts for 

 proper aeration. Agricultural ants so treat this particular 

 fungus that it never comes to full fruiting but grows in such 

 a pecuHar way that it produces little knob-like heads, and 

 it is upon these that the ants depend almost entirely in their 

 basic food economy. When the queen of this farmer group 

 is preparing to leave the nest on the nuptial flight, she takes 

 some of the fungus along with her, carrying it in a special 

 pocket in the floor of her mouth. At the end of the flight, 

 now^ fertilized and alone, she digs a little chamber, sheds her 

 wings, and then voids the fungus on the floor of the chamber. 

 She tends it until the grubs hatch and feeds it to them until 

 they pupate. Upon emerging from the pupa and without 

 any teaching, the newborn workers hurry out after bits of 

 leaves, spread out a rich bed for the future fungus garden, 

 tend it carefully; soon there is a numerous society organized 

 on a sound economic basis. 



In some of the dry countries of the world there is a species 

 of ant which collects grain and stores it carefully. Long ago 

 King Solomon was impressed with their industry and fore- 

 sight. These ants have undergone considerable modification, 

 the soldiers having been demilitarized into animated flour 

 mills. Their jaws have been organized for crushing and 

 grinding hard grain— something the ordinary workers can- 

 not do. The latter chew up the finely broken grain, making 

 a paste which they mold into cakes and set out in the sun 

 to dry. 



Also found in some dry regions is the honeypot, one of 

 the most bizarre of all ants. The workers of this species 

 bring back to the nest the sweet secretions of insects (aphids) 

 which they feed to specialized neuters of the colony called 



