TETRAMORITJM. 175 



not appear to seek other species which occur on plants. They 

 also exhibit a tendency to collect and harbour seeds in their nests, 

 more particularly in warm climes such as Algeria, where they 

 construct special chambers to act as granaries. Andre had sent 

 to him, in the month of December, a number of seeds of a dirty 

 yellow colour, from such a granary of this ant at Oran 34 . Moggridge 

 records that this species may occasionally be seen collecting and 

 carrying seeds into its nests at Mentone and Cannes 25 . 



Farren-White says he found this species manifesting harvesting 

 instincts at Branscombe in Devonshire 41 . He noticed the diligent 

 workers filing into their nest with grass-seeds in their mandibles, 

 and on disturbing their habitation he found many seeds scattered 

 among the debris of what he took to be their granary 42 . Janet 

 records that at Beauvais it is not rare to find accumulations of 

 seeds in the nests of this ant, and that at Bois du Montois he 

 found, on September 3rd, a cupful of the little seeds of Mercurialis 

 and Paniscum heaped up in a chamber in a nest situated under a 

 stone. He noticed that those seeds which were deepest in the 

 earth had germinated, whereas the ones which were least exposed 

 to moisture had not done so 50 . Escherich, in the hot summer of 

 1904, repeatedly found stores of seeds in the nests of T. caespitum 

 at Strasburg, a fact which he had not observed in former years 57 . 

 Wheeler remarks that it is interesting to note that this ant occa- 

 sionally stores seeds in the chambers of its nests. He has seen the 

 chambers of a colony of this ant near Mamaroneck, N.Y., filled with 

 grass seeds, and he points out that in this case we have apparently 

 either an evanescent or an incipient habit 63 . 



In April, 1909, I found a great number of Cardamine seeds 

 (probably either C. flexuosa or C. hirsuta) in many nests of T. 

 caespitum at Whitsand Bay 64 , again in April, 1911, the same seeds 

 were found in some of the nests of this ant at St. Issey 66 , and in 

 June, 1913, a number of Cerastium seeds were found in three nests 

 of this same ant on Lundy Island 67 . All these nests were situated 

 under stones, and the seeds occurred in chambers just beneath the 

 stone. 



Perez in 1906 records that these ants attack the tubers of potato 

 plants, excavating more or less profound cavities, many young 

 plants being killed in this way. He mentions that the roots of 

 young cabbages and carrots, as well as uncultivated plants, are 

 also injured by T. caespitum, and he says it is remarkable that 

 these facts have never been noticed before (" jusqu'a ce jour ") 53 . 

 Linnaeus however in the original description of this species in 

 1758 writes " Habitat in tuberibus," 1 and Forel in 1884 observed 

 that young beet-roots were attacked by this same ant at Vaux, 

 many of the plants dying from the injuries received 37 . 



Colonies of T. caespitum are frequently found in the proximity 

 of other ants' nests, but there is probably no real connection 



