518 The Outline of Science 



ants, are brought into the nests and protected carefully from the 

 severities of winter until the warm weather conies, when the 

 young aphides are brought out and put on their food-plant, 

 walled in by little "cattle-pens" of earth. By keeping these eggs 

 safe for six months the ants ensure a supply of the food delicacy 

 during the following summer a truly remarkable case of 

 prudence ! 



The Wonderful Leaf-cutting Ant 



In North America there are "agricultural ants" which weed 

 a space near the nest and only allow plants with edible seeds to 

 grow there. These seeds they gather in due season, and store in 

 the form of little biscuits which are made from a chewed-seed 

 dough dried in the sun. Another industry is the cultivation of 

 fungi for food another point in which they agree with the Ter- 

 mites and this habit is seen among the Leaf -cutting Ants. The 

 fungus is grown in the underground nest on a spongy frame- 

 work of chewed leaves, and the ants not only keep undesirable 

 fungi from growing amongst their peculiar delicacy, but they 

 keep their speciality from fructifying, which would spoil it for 

 their purpose. 



Much has been added to our knowledge of the Leaf -cutting 

 Ants by Mr. Beebe, who, in his fascinating book The Edge of 

 the Jungle (1921), gives us an account of his own observations 

 of a species of Atta in British Guiana. He had the good fortune 

 to see, at one time, a royal procession leaving the nest in prepara- 

 tion for the nuptial flight. The great queen laboured painfully 

 up to the tunnel far away from the real entrance to the nest. 

 Behind her came the kings, much smaller than she, but large in 

 comparison with the workers that ran all about them. When 

 the queen reached the surface she poised herself on the tips of 

 her slender legs and stretched out her great wings, looking like 

 an aeroplane in miniature. Immediately the little workers 

 swarmed over her, inspecting every organ, cleaning her antennte, 



