HARVESTING ANTS, 41 



It may be that unusual exertions are necessitated by 

 some exceptional demands made by the condition of 

 the larvae of the v/inge(i male and female ants, and I 

 have observed that these latter appear at very various 

 periods. Thus I have seen winged males and females 

 in the nests of Barbara on November 10, December 6, 

 Februar}^ 2, and March 10 ; and in those of structor 

 on February 23, 29, March 13, and April G. 



Though structor and fjartjara make seed collecting 

 the business of their lives, they will, at least in times 

 of scarcity, eagerlj^ devour animal food if it happen to 

 fall in their way, and in the harvesting trains a few 

 ants may occasionally be seen carrying small dead in- 

 sects and the like. Once I threw a dead grasshopper 

 down close to a nest of barbara ; it was immediately 

 seized upon, and — after strenuous efforts had been made 

 to dismember it above ground, some ants straining 

 back the lejjs and wins^s, while others rushed in to 

 gnaw at the muscles wdiere the tension was greatest, — 

 carried down below. On the following morning the 

 wings of the grasshopper were to be seen on the 

 rubbish heap in front of the nest. Dead house-flies 

 and the larvse of bees or wasps were at times readily 

 devoured by my captive ants {barbara). I have also 

 seen large numbers of strudors engaged in picking the 

 bones of a dead lizard, and was once a witness of the 

 following singular contest between a soft-bodied, 

 smooth, greyish caterpillar, exactly an inch in length, 

 and two medium- sized barbara ants. The ants were 

 mere pigmies in comparison of their pre}^, for as such 

 I believe they regarded the caterpillar, but they 

 gripped its soft body with set mandibles, showing 

 the most savage determination not to loose their hold. 



"When I first detected the group the war was being 



