54 ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



developed from the ordinary worker and do not 

 comprise a distinct caste, the possibilities of such en- 

 largement may exist in the structure and functions of 

 all honey-feeding ants. 



The Indians and Mexicans eat this honey freely, 

 and not unusually the ants are served at table as a 

 dainty morsel, the head and thorax being removed. 

 The liquid is also pressed out of the body, and forms 

 the principal ingredient of an exhilarating drink some- 

 what like mead. It is supposed to possess wonderful 

 healing properties, and has a place among the native 

 remedies for disease, being applied to bruises, to 

 swelling, and as an unguent to cataract of the eye. 

 That it might ever become of practical commercial 

 value is hopeless, since the comparative number of 

 workers being honey-bearers in a nest is strangely 

 small. 



The opinion of many eminent naturalists of the 

 present centuries is opposed to the belief that ants 

 show foresight and husbandry in the systematic col- 

 lection and storage of seed. Ancient books, both 

 Oriental and European, show their writers to have 

 been quite at variance with the modern idea. The 

 authors of neither period are altogether in the right. 

 It is a mistake to deny the seed-storing habit to any 

 ants, an error that arises from too hasty generalisa- 

 tion and limited observation. To attribute it to ants 

 in general, irrespective of species or country, is 

 equally incorrect, the ancients having judged 

 from their own circumscribed experience and the 

 reports of others. The truth is that the harvesting of 

 grain by ants does occur, but seems to be confined to 



