HARVESTING ANTS 23 



particular duty of the one ant. Each worker could 

 with very little more trouble have advanced another 

 inch with its burden and thrown it over the precipice ; 

 but it was apparently a better division of labour and 

 in some way more economical for the community, that 

 each worker should take its load only to the summit 

 and there deposit it, but that the size, shape, and 

 general construction of the mound should be the 

 peculiar duty of one particular worker. 



But apart from these special instances, we observe 

 the same principle employed in the routine of daily 

 life. The harvesting of grain and the casting out of 

 husks are duties which are carried on simultaneously 

 in the same nest. In this work the ants divide their 

 labour : certain individuals harvest grain but do not 

 undertake the removal of husks ; others eject the 

 husks but take no part in the storage of grain. And 

 not only do these ants divide their toil amongst their 

 many members, but they sometimes advance still 

 further in the division of labour, that most valuable of 

 all functions to any community, in that they occasion- 

 ally reserve one aperture of the nest exclusively as an 

 entrance for those workers carrying in the harvest, and 

 another aperture solely as an exit for those other 

 workers engaged in throwing out the husks. 



Thus do the harvesters divide their labours in due 

 regard to the business of their lives. The strict 

 economy of the nest needs the untiring help of all. 

 But each individual has its own duty ; each its own 

 particular place in the long monotony of daily toil. 



