Popular Science Monthly 



243 



Are You Interested in Cellar Farming? 

 Let the Parasol Ant Instruct You 



THE accompanying photograph shows 

 the leaf-cutting or parasol ants of 

 tropical America traveling on the branch of 

 a tree to their subterranean home, each ant 

 carrying a leaf in its powerful jaws. These 

 ants are the most conspicuous, abundant 

 and destructive insects of the tribe of 

 fungus-growing ants which inhabit the 

 territory thirty degrees north and south of 

 the equator. On the other hand they are 

 noted agricultural specialists, feeding upon 

 mushroom-like fungus which they grow 

 themselves in their cellars. 



There still remains doubt among scien- 

 tists as to what the ants do with the leaves 

 they gather. Some surmise that they use 

 them as food; others that they roof their 

 underground nests with them. But the 

 real use they make of leaves, according to 

 a recent book by Belt, entitled "The 

 Naturalist in Nicaragua," is to make a 

 compost in which a minute species of fungus 

 resembling the mushroom will thrive. On 

 this they feed. In other words. Belt calls 

 the parasol ants mushroom-growers and 

 feeders. They do not confine themselves 

 to leaves, he says, but carry off any vege- 

 table substance they find suitable for the 

 compost. 



They are very particular about the ven- 

 tilation of their underground chambers, and 

 they have numerous holes leading from 

 them up to the surface. These they open 

 out or close up, apparently to maintain a 

 regulation of temperature below. If they 

 had had special instructions in underground 

 farming their methods could not be more 

 scientific. They were probably nicknamed 

 parasol ants because of the manner in which 

 they carry the leaves which they gathei*. 



A swarm of bees found out too late that a 

 telephone terminal box is no place for a hive 



Even Bees Should Be Careful Where 

 They Locate 



IN the illustration above, the object in 

 the upper right-hand corner is a honey- 

 comb. The black spots on it and on the 

 floor below and on the coiled wires are the 

 bees which lost their lives through poor 

 judgment in the choice of a hive. 



They chose a terminal box of a telephone 

 company, and as the manager was not in 

 the honey business his principal concern 

 was to get rid of the bees without insulting 

 them. The fumes of bi-sulphate of carbon 

 did the trick. 



The parasol ants carry leaves and other vegetable substances, sometimes several times their size, 

 nicely balanced on their heads so that the entire body is shaded. This suggested the name 



