340 ENTOMOLOGY 
workers may be seen, one composed of individuals returning 
to the nest, each with a piece of a pine needle, the other of 
outgoing workers. The nest is a simple structure, extending 
some seven inches underground and ending in a chamber in 
which are several small pulpy balls, consisting probably of 
masticated leaves. Further studies upon our own leaf-cutting 
ants, modeled after the admirable studies of Moller, are much 
to be desired. 
Harvesting Ants.—Lubbock observes that some ants col- 
lect the seeds of violets and grasses and preserve them care- 
fully for some purpose as yet unknown. From such a begin- 
ning as this may have arisen the extraordinary habits of the 
agricultural, or harvesting, ants, of which some twenty species 
are known from various parts of the world. 
The Texas species Pogonomyrmex barbatus, studied by 
Lincecum and by McCook, clears away the herbage around its 
nest (even plants several feet high and as thick as a man’s 
thumb) and levels the ground, forming a disk often 10 or 12 
and sometimes 15 to 20 feet in diameter, from which radiating 
paths are made, from 60 to 300 feet in length. The ants go 
back and forth along these roads, carrying to the nest seeds 
which they have collected from the ground or else have cut 
from plants; these seeds are stored in “ granaries ” several feet 
underground and are eventually used as food. ‘The ants pre- 
fer the seeds of a grass, Aristida oligantha, but the oft-repeated 
statement that they sow the seeds of this “ ant-rice,” guard it 
and weed it, is denied by Wheeler. 
Notwithstanding the elaborate studies of McCook upon this 
subject, there still remain not a few essential questions to be 
answered. 
Myrmecophilism.—To add to the complexity of ant-life, 
the nests of ants, when at all extensive, are frequented by a 
ereat variety of other arthropods, which on account of their 
association with ants are termed myrmecophiles. Most of 
these are insects, of which Wasmann has catalogued 1,200 
species, but not a few are spiders, mites, crustaceans, etc. 
