186 SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE 



called Melipona and Trigona there are permanent 

 societies but with imperfect combs; in the hive- 

 bees we have to do with permanent societies and 

 with perfect combs. The elaborate storing, carried 

 to abnormal exuberance under man's domesticating 

 tutelage, is correlated with surviving the winter 

 i.e. with permanence, and with the survival of the 

 mothers after the adolescence of their offspring 

 i.e. with the possibility of social tradition. The 

 transition from purely domestic storing to social 

 storing illustrated by the bees on the instinctive 

 level is closely paralleled by what has happened 

 in mankind on the intelligent level. 



It is impossible to think of storing without a 

 vision of Solomon's ant " which, having no guide, 

 overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the sum- 

 mer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." And, 

 as among bees, we find all grades among ants from 

 those that do not store at all to those that make a 

 fine art of it. But every naturalist must put the 

 brake on when he begins to descant on the pismires, 

 and we shall confine ourselves to one illustration. 

 According to recent studies of the common Mediter- 

 ranean ant, Aphanogaster barbarus, the seeds which 

 are collected are kept for a time dry and are eventu- 

 ally put out in the rain so that they begin to germi- 

 nate. This has the advantage of bursting the hard 

 seed-coats, and in some cases of starting processes 

 of fermentation. At a certain stage, however, the 

 ants kill the embryo-plant by biting off the radicle 

 or other parts, and the seeds are dried again in 



