146 NOTES ON QUEENSLAND ANTS, 
NOTES ON QUEENSLAND ANTS, 
BY 
HENRY TRYON, 
1.—HARVESTING ANTS. 
’ 
Tue author of the ‘ Proverbs,” in his well-known admonition 
addressed to the sluggard, claims consideration for the economy 
of ants, and alludes to their habit of gathering their food 
in the harvest—on which account also he elsewhere refers to 
them as one of the four things which “are little upon the 
earth but exceeding wise.” And again the Augustine poet— 
using the simile of ants in describing the busy preparations 
made on the eve of the departure from Carthage—refers to 
them as ravaging heaps of grain—warned by the approach of 
coming winter [Virgil Afnid, IV., 395-400]. And other so- 
9 
called “ ancients,” amongst their fabulous relations concerning 
these insects, have mentioned similar habits. 
This harvesting propensity of ants was for a long time 
diseredited, and those who thought about the subject were 
content to accept the explanation of Gould [in “ Account of 
English Ants,” 1747], viz:—that these ancient writers had 
mistaken for seeds and grain, the pupee—which the ants transport 
from place to place in order to locate them under circumstances 
best suited for their development; or, again, they would 
endeavour by learned exposition to derive some meaning from the 
expressions used-—in allusion to this habit—other than afforded 
in their legitimate interpretation. Moreover, even the authors of 
that English classic, ‘‘ An Introduction to Entomology” [Vol. 
IL., pp. 45-46, Ed., 1817], were—commending the explanation of 
Gould—inclined to doubt the accuracy of the observations 
which had suggested allusions of the nature of the above, 
