HARVESTING ANTS. 53 



making at the same time a partial recapitulation of 

 what has gone before. 



We have learned in the first place that the ancients 

 had facts on their side when they said that the ant is 

 one of the very few creatures which lays up supplies 

 of food sufficient to last for months, or even perhaps, 

 as Bochart says, for a whole year ; and though we 

 cannot quite accept the statement that " there is no 

 animal except men, mice, and ants, that stores its 

 food,"* they were right in sajdng that the habit is a 

 most singular and interesting one. It is probable, 

 however, that the old writers may have fallen into 

 the error of supposing that all ants were harvesters, 

 though the truth appears to be, that even in hot 

 climates, it is only a very small number of species 

 that are so. The fact that certain ants in Southern 

 Europe do store large quantities of sound seed in 

 damp soil, and check their tendency to germinate, 

 may be thought to favour the possibility of the exis- 

 tence of those deeply hidden supplies of seed which, 

 though they have never been detected, are popularly 

 supposed to explain the sudden appearance of the 

 crops of weeds on soil newly brought out from great 

 depths. 



The argument may be stated thus : seeds remain 

 for months undecayed, and still capable of germination, 

 at depths varying from one to twenty inches below 

 the surface of the soil in certain ants' nests, why 

 should they not lie hidden for indefinite periods in 

 ordinary soil? 



To answer this positively, experiments should be 



* Soiihian, quoted by Bochart in his Hierozoicon, ii. cap. xxi. p. 497. 



