160 SUPPLEMENT TO 



variety. These, it will be remembered, are the only 

 species of European ants which have as 3^et been 

 proved to be harvesters and seed-storers in the fullest 

 sense of the terra, that is to say, which not only 

 gather and carry seeds, but also store them in large 

 quantities below the surface of the ground.* 



In the case oi Pheidole i7,egacepliala (the only other 

 European ant which I have detected collecting seeds 

 in large numbers), I have never been able to find 

 granaries or subterranean stores of any kind, though 

 I have frequently made extensive search for them, 

 and explored, to all appearance, the whole nest. 



When we remember the great variety of ants 

 which inhabit Europe alone (a recent listf enume- 

 rating no fewer than 104 distinct species), it certainly 

 may seem strange at first that only two of their 

 number should possess this habit. Perhaps, however, 

 we may yet discover that some other of these species 

 are true harvesters ; but at present the chances seem 

 rather against it, since the harvesters found at such 

 distant points as Algiers, Cadenabbia, and Mont- 

 pellier have all turned out to belong to one or other 

 of the two species, str actor or barbara. 



Indeed it may very well be that the numerical 

 superiority and wide distribution of these two species 

 have served to secure to them a more or less exclusive 



* Six other species belonging to the genus Atta are found in Europe, but they 

 are all unknown to me. 



It seems likely (hat, if other harvesting ants do exist in Europe they may 

 belong to one of these six species ; for we have seen {Ants and Spiders, p. 59) 

 that all the ants which are known to possess this habit are either members of 

 the genus Atta or belong to genera closely related to it. 



+ Description des Fourmis d'Europe pour servir a Vetude des insectes 

 myrmecophilis, by Ernest Andre, in Rev. et Mag. de Zool. Z" ser. torn. ii. 

 (1874), p. 152, &c. 



