12 HARVESTING ANTS. 



it from germinating." He then goes on to show how 

 the ants are frequently torpid during the winter, and 

 that when it happens that a few warmer days wake 

 them up to life, they can always find a few a23hides 

 also on the alert ; for, strange to say, the same degree 

 of warmth which rouses the ants calls forth the aphides 

 also. It would appear that ants in the northern parts 

 of Europe feed on the honey-dew of aphides, and on 

 animal matter when they can get it ; and up to the 

 present time the belief prevails among our modern 

 naturalists that they are limited to the same diet in 

 all parts of Europe. 



It is now well known, however, that exceptions 

 must probably be made in tropical countries, for the 

 observations of Lieut. -Col. Sykes* and Dr. Jerdonf 

 have shown that many ants in India collect 

 grain in large quantities, robbing the crops and 

 i:)lants cultivated in gardens, and even stealing seeds 

 put away in drawers, the inference being that they 

 employ them for food. The same observers have re- 

 corded how the ants may be seen after wet weather 

 bringing out the grain to dry in the sun. 



Dr. Lincecum has also given a very interesting 

 account J of the habits of the " agricultural ant" in- 

 habiting Texas, Mp-mica {Jlfa)barbata, which not only 

 stores the grain of a particular rice-like grass, but is said 



* Lieut.-Col. Sykes, Description of New Indian Ants, in Trans. Ent. Soc. 

 Lond., i. 103 (1836), where a single species of ant, which he names Atta 

 providens, is described, and its habit of harvesting recorded. 



f Dr. Jerdon, Madras Journal Lit. and Sc. (1851), where three species 

 are stated to harvest seeds on a large scale — namely, CEcodoma (or Atta) 

 providens, CEcodoma diffusa, and Atta rufa, all of which belong to the same 

 section of ants as our Meutouese harvesters, Atta barbara, Atta structor, and 

 J-'/ieidole (or Atta) ineyaccphala. These very interesting observations of Dr. 

 Jerdon's, as well as tliose of Lieut. -Col. Sykes, will be found in Appendix B. 



t Published in the Journal of the Liunean Society of London, vol. vi. p. 29. 

 1861. 



