HARVESTING ANTS 13 



March. Throughout the winter not a harvester is 

 seen, but the first warm days of spring vivify them 

 from their sleep and a start is made in the establish- 

 ment of a nest. A few workers, drowsy and indolent, 

 emerge from the ground. They move slowly about 

 waiting for the warm sun to dissipate their sloth. 

 Soon they commence to work. Each ant emerges 

 from the nest holding in its mandibles a little load of 

 earth ; this it throws to one side and returns for 

 another burden. Other workers join the original 

 pioneers and excavation advances. In these early 

 days the work is sluggish and intermittent owing to 

 the changing weather ; a bright sun moves the ants to 

 toil with energy, the rain or cloud or bitter wind drives 

 them inert to the nest. An important duty at the 

 commencement of the season is the clearance of the 

 last year's galleries. The ants occupy themselves in 

 ejecting the chaff and husks from the nest. Even in 

 this work they display some system, not casting about 

 the refuse haphazard, but collecting it into a heap at 

 one special place. Slowly the tunnels are deepened, 

 the granaries are enlarged, piles of debris accumulate 

 about the orifice of the nest, but as yet no attempt has 

 been made to gather in the harvest. An important 

 event must first occur ; the sexual forms must emerge 

 before the storage of food begins. 



Towards the end of the month they appear. The 

 winged males and females creep slowly from the nest 

 and out into the open. The workers pay them much 

 attention, caressing them with gentle strokes of their 

 antennae. But the prospective parents are eager to 

 be away ; they soon climb to points of vantage on the 

 tips of the neighbouring blades of grass and fly off 



