AGRICULTURAL ANTS. 29 



opened. It has no appearance of external 

 eyes. 



Dr. Liucecum has observed an Ant in Texas, 

 which has been called the Agricultural Ant, 

 Alia malefaciens. When this species has fixed 

 its home in good dry ground, it bores a cen- 

 tral hole, about which it raises the surface per- 

 haps six inches, making a low mound, which 

 gently slopes to the outer edge. If the spot be 

 wet, the mound is raised higher, and is even 

 fifteen or twenty inches high. The space about 

 the mound is carefully cleaned and smoothed 

 like a pavement. iTothing is allowed to grow 

 in this circle, two or three feet from the centre, 

 except a single species of grass. This grass 

 the ants tend with the greatest care, cutting 

 away the weeds within and about it. It thrives 

 under their culture, and bears a crop of seed 

 which resembles, under the microscope, minia- 

 ture rice. When ripe, it is carefully harvested, 

 and carried into the cells, where it is cleaned 

 of the chaff", and packed away. If the grain 

 gets moist in damp weather, it is taken out and 



