BY HENRY TRYON. 149 
media, in excavations made by them in the sandstone rocks,* and 
subsequently was able to confirm his opinion that these ants 
also made use of stored-up seeds for food.t¢ The considerable 
attention which this writer gave to the subject, is very evident 
on a perusal of his popular work on “ Harvesting Ants and 
Trap Door Spiders,” London, 1873. In this publication Mr. 
Moggridge reviews the Biblical and classical notices of the 
habit of storing-up grain by ants, and the explanation of these 
notices given by such entomologists as had considered them 
worthy of comment. He then mentions the occurrence of this 
habit in three distinct species of ants found at Mentone, and in 
six others—natives of other countries—whilst he at the same 
time dwells on the custom of ants carrying seeds only, but not 
necessarily, with a view to harvesting them. 
He then describes and figures the heaps of rejected portions 
of seeds, found outside the ants’ nests, as well as the granaries 
themselves. Mr. Moggridge observed that seeds whilst in the 
granaries did not germinate, though they did so when removed 
by him and afterwards sown; and that when in some exceptional 
cases the radicle in stored grain did sprout, it was afterwards 
gnawn off—from which he concluded also that the ants first 
placed some seeds under circumstances favourable to their 
germination, and that this process was whilst in an early 
stage repressed by the ants themselves. These facts are inter- 
spersed with many relations concerning other peculiar habits of 
harvesting ants, and ample justice is done to previous writers, 
whose contribution to the history of the subject are copiously 
extracted and summarised. 
The next writer who treats the subject systematically is Mr. 
H. Christopher McCook, author of ‘‘ The Natural History of the 
* Proc. Ent. Soc., Lond., 1871. p. 47. 
Tt Op. Cit., 1872. p.8. 
