BY HENRY TRYON. 147 
though they were of opinion that such a habit might possibly 
be found to exist amongst the ants of intertropical countries. 
Since the time when these explanations served their purpose 
the ways of ants have been, and are, once more carefully con- 
sidered, with the result of proving that ‘the parsimonious 
emmet provident of future” has really an existence in nature. 
Colonel Sykes* was perhaps the first to demonstrate the fact 
that these old authorities did not make use of poetic license 
in their similes and descriptions, by showing that harvesting 
ants really exist in India. This naturalist observed in June, 
1829, ants bringing up to the surface seed from a store which 
they had accumulated in their subterranean nest, and which they 
must have gathered in the preceding months of January or 
February, when the Paunicwm—which was the grass from which 
the supply had been derived—ripens its seed. He concluded 
that on this, as on a similar occasion which took place in 
October of the same year, the seed had got wet during the 
prevalence of a monsoon, and was brought to the surface in 
order to dry it. Colonel Sykes, too, was very careful in verifying 
his facts, as he was aware that they militated against the obser- 
vations of entomologists in Europe. His observations related 
to the ant, Pheidole providens (Sykes) West. 
The Rev. W. Hope,t in 1837, drew attention to the providence 
of ants, and their habit of hoarding grain as winter store, in 
order to contrast what had been positively stated on the subject, 
both by ancients and moderns—including the narrative of Colonel 
Sykes, with the doubts expressed by the entomologists of his 
day. He at the same time referred to Bochart [Hierozoicon, Vol. 
IlI.] for citation of a host of authors all concurring in the 
same opinion, that certain ants presented this trait. 
* Trans. Ent. Soc., Vol. I., p. 101. London, 1836. 
+ Vid. “On Some Doubts Respecting the Economy of Ants.” Trans. 
Ent. Soc., Vol. II., pp. 211-218. London, 1839. 
