HARVESTING ANTS. 47 



toothed mandibles, and take them into their mouths, re- 

 peating the operation many times, before giving place 

 to other ants, and often returning again. It certainly 

 appeared to be a botidjide meal that they were making, 

 and not merely an act performed for the benefit of the 

 larvse, as when they detach crumbs from a piece of 

 bread and carry tliem below into the nest. However, 

 I must own that, though I subsequently dissected 

 ants taken in tliis act, which I suppose to be that of 

 eating, I was unable by the use of the iodine test to 

 ^detect starch grains in their stomachs. 



Still it seems quite possible that this failure may 

 have been due to my not having allowed the ants 

 sufficient time to swallow their food, as I killed them 

 almost immediately after disturbing them at their 

 meal. 



After having twice observed the ants eating as 

 above described, I made some experiments in feeding 

 them myself. 



They immediately seized and set to work upon a 

 minute ball of flour which I cut out from the centre 

 of a grain of millet, taken from a heap in front of a 

 nest of A. structor, which had begun to sprout and 

 been deprived of its radicle and dried. A similar ball 

 taken from a sprouting grain of millet, but the growth 

 of which had not been arrested, was also partially 

 eaten ; but the hard, dry flour taken from a grain of 

 the same in its natural state, not moistened, was at 

 once rejected and thrown on the rubbish heap. The 

 fat, oily seed leaves of the hemp, however, were eagerly 

 taken, though not softened by water, their peculiar 

 texture allowing the ants to scrape off" f)articles, as in 

 the case of the ball of flour of the sprouted millet. 



