HARVESTING ANTS. 159 



Como, and at Montpellier in Southern France ; but 

 on examination, the ants from the form.er place are 

 clearly seen to belong- to the species sfriicior, and 

 those from Montpellier to the two species structor and 

 bm'bara. 



I was greatly interested to receive specimens of 

 ants, and of the seeds which they were carrjing and 

 storing beneath the stones of a paved road at Cade- 

 nabbia, for this is tbe northernmost point* at which 

 the habit of harvesting has as yet been noted. This 

 discovery suggests the possibility of the occurrence of 

 the habit in the warmer and more sheltered of the 

 Swiss valleys. When at Montpellier in May last I 

 frequently observed long trains of ants bringing 

 seeds and small dry fruits to their nests, but these 

 harvesters also turned out on close inspection to be 

 Atta sfrucfor and A. barbara, with its red-headed 



* I have related in a note at the foot of p. 4 in Ants and Spiders how 

 Formica nigra in England, though paying no attention to seeds generally, will 

 sometimes collect the fresh seeds of the sweet violet [Viola odoratu) . 



When 1 published this account I was quite unaware that the fact that certain 

 English ants collect sweet violet seeds had heen ohserved by Mr. R. '\^'akefield 

 forty years before. 



This was communicated by Mr. Wakefield in a letter to Mr. John Curtis, the 

 substance of which was read before the Linnean Society in 185-1, and published 

 in their Proceedings (see Proceedings of the Liniiean Society, ii. 293), where we 

 read : " He (Mr. Wakefield) states that he has seen the black species {Formica 

 nigra, L.) for days and nights together industriously occupied in dragging to 

 its cells the seeds of the common violet (Viola odorata, L.) 



"He first noticed this fact on the 3rd of July, 1832 ; and he regards it as a 

 curious subject of inquiry for what purpose, if not for their own future provision, 

 they could accumulate these stores V" Mr. Wakefield appears to accept this as 

 evidence tliat these ants possess the habit of storing seeds ; but this is not so, as 

 will be seen by reference to my note alluded to above, and I am inclined to 

 believe that they collect these particular seeds either under the mistaken 

 belief'that they are larvte, to which \vhen Fresh they boar some resemblance, or 

 for the sake of some juices which they may obtain from the fleshy appendage 

 attached to the seed. 



N .2 



