26 HARVESTING ANTS. 



root of dicotyledonous and monocotjdedonous seeds — 

 has been gnawed off, they are brought out from the 

 nest and placed in the sun to dry, and then, after a 

 sufficient exposure, cariied below into the nest. 



The seeds are thus in effect malted, the starch 

 being changed into sugar, and I have myself wit- 

 nessed the avidity with which the contents of seeds 

 thus treated are devoured by the ants. 



Figs. A,B,C, in Plate VI., p. 35, illustrate the manner 

 in which the ants mutilate the germinating seeds and 

 check their growth. Thus, at Fig. C 2 of Plate YI. a 

 sprouting but uninjured canary seed {Phalaris cana- 

 riensis) is drawn, magnified, and at Figs. C and CI the 

 same of the natural size and magnified, after the ants 

 have gnawed its fibril (fib.), which in this case pierces 

 the undeveloped radicle (rad.). Fig. A 2 represents a 

 sprouting hemp-seed, magnified,* and Figs. A, A 1, 

 the same of the natural size and magnified, mutilated, 

 the tip of the radicle being removed. 



At Figs. B, B 1, B 2, the same process is shown in 

 the case of a small wild pea. 



It is, however, certain that though a few individual 

 seeds may sprout in the nests from time to time either 

 with or without the concurrence of the ants, the great 

 mass remain for many weeks, or even months, quite 

 intact, neither decaying nor germinating, whereas every 

 one knows that if a quantity of seeds are placed in 

 the soil in a moist and warm place, all the seeds that 

 are of one kind will almost simultaneously begin to 

 grow after the lapse of a fixed interval. 



Now if this took place in an ant's nest, the provisions 



* Properly a nut, for it comprises the seed and the enveloping coat of the 

 ovary. The canary seed also, spoken of above, is a grain containing a seed. 



