220 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



of fungus snipped off by the jaws of the attendant 

 workers minor. 



To the larger workers is entrusted the task of 

 making these mushroom beds. The green leaves 

 are brought to them, and they cut them into 

 shreds, cleaning each shred by licking it, then 

 rolling it into a little pellet and throwing it upon 

 the heap. It is also stated that when they have 

 completed the formation of a new bed it is inocu- 

 lated with the fungus by bringing a piece of the 

 old bed with its mycelium threads, just as our 

 mushroom- growers do. When the beds are ex- 

 hausted and no longer produce the fungus the 

 chamber is abandoned, and the remainder of the 

 mushroom-bed is gradually eaten up by the larvae 

 of beetles and other insects that are always scaveng- 

 ing in such nests. 



Such a method of cultivation by insects should 

 not be dismissed as a mere curiosity of natural 

 history. The process is so complicated that it 

 implies a much higher order of intelligence than is 

 usually allowed to insects by human philosophy. 

 If Lincecum's statement that the Texas ants 

 actually sowed their seeds in cleared ground had 

 been substantiated by later observations, although 

 remarkable it would appear trivial as compared 

 with the conduct of the Saiiba ; for the Texas 

 ants would have been merely sowing an actual 

 article of food in order to get more of it, much as 

 other species of ant steal larvae and pupae from a 

 neighbouring nest in order that they may quickly 



