THE HARVESTIXG-ANTS OF FLORIDA. 95 



There is still another difficulty in the way 

 of Dr. Forel's theory. Careful observations 

 have revealed the fact that all the harvest- 

 ing-ants that engage in work of any kind 

 are armed with teeth. I took thirty soldiers 

 with smooth mandibles, put them in a glass 

 jar with, every facility for making a nest, 

 but they refused to work, scorned all my of- 

 fers of food, and remained huddled together 

 for three days. I then introduced several 

 workers minor, and they immediately com- 

 menced tunnelling the earth and making 

 chambers, into which the lazy soldiers crawl- 

 ed, meeting with no opposition from these 

 industrious little creatures. My experiments 

 did not stop here. I now took about a hun- 

 dred specimens soldiers and a few workers 

 major, the last with partially-developed teeth 

 and placed them in ajar. Some of these 

 made feeble attempts to construct a nest, 

 but they did not store away seeds, and lar- 

 vae which I put in the jar they carried about 

 as if not knowing what to do with them. 



There is every appearance of an aristoc- 

 racy among these humble creatures. The 

 minors are the servants who do the work, 

 while the queens and soldiers (especially the 

 soldiers, which more nearly approach the 

 queen in shape of head and mandibles) seem 



