334 HALP HOURS AVITH INSECTS. [Packakd. 



Bates previously made similar statements regarding the 

 Brazilian CEcodoma ceplialotes. "They have," he says, "reg- 

 ular divisions of laborers, numbers mounting the trees and 

 cutting off the leaves in irregularly rounded pieces the size 

 of a shilling, another relay carrying them off as they fall." 

 The large-headed individuals do not work, and are only to 

 be seen on disturbing the nest. 



An important part of the work in some ant colonies is the 

 storing up of seeds. An East Indian ant {Pheidole provi- 

 dens) "collects so large a store of grass seeds as to last 

 from January and February, the time of their ripening, till 

 October. 



We have in this country an agricultural ant, whose histo- 

 rian, the late Dr. Lincecum, of Texas, declares has the 

 instinct to sow the grass from w^hich the seeds are gathered 

 by it. He is a reliable observer and studied this ant {Myr- 

 mica molefacieiis) for a period of eighteen j-ears. The asser- 

 tion that the ants actually plant the grass may be confirmed 

 or not by future observation. He makes the statement, 

 however, that at the site of their nests, " there were little 

 patches of the same grass scattered about on the little glade, 

 which had doubtless been planted there by some experienced 

 ant, for it had been neatly cleared of all other vegetables, in 

 fact cultivated b}' them." He subsequentl}' states in the 

 same connection ("American Naturalist," vol. viii, 51G) 

 that "this species of ant subsists almost entirely on small 

 seeds, great quantities of which it stores away in its gran- 

 ary-cells to supply food for winter. During rainy seasons 

 in the autumnal months, it happens right often that the 

 ground becoming saturated, the water penetrates their gran- 

 aries and swells and sprouts their seeds. In this emer- 

 gency they bring out the damaged grain the first fair daj', 

 and exposing it to the sun until near night, they take in all 

 that is not actuall}^ sprouted. I saw them in G. W. Gentry's 

 farm one day have out on a flat rock as much as a gallon of 



14 



