The Zoologist — July, 1868. 1275 



while they are meeting on the path an equal number of workers who 

 arc hurrying back to the tree empty. They deposit the leaves on the 

 ground at the place appointed for curing them, where they are left to 

 dry in the sun through the succeeding day. Sometimes the new-cut 

 leaves are deposited near the entrance to the city ; at other times they 

 are strewed thickly along the path from the tree to the city ; and not 

 unfrequently they are thrown down in a pile near the root of the tree 

 from whence they were taken. In either case they are left exposed all 

 day in the sunshine, and they are, during the succeeding night, care- 

 fully gathered up and taken into the city : this rule obtains in autumn : 

 they do not cure their leaves until towards winter. All summer time 

 they are carried directly from the tree into the city. Whilst the dried 

 leaves are being stored away, the foragers are engaged in cutting and 

 laying out a quantity of fresh leaves, which undergo the same processes 

 of curing and storing as the previous lot; and so on through the 

 season for storing up food for winter; but should a shower of rain fall 

 uj)on and wet the laid-out leaves while they are out drying, it renders 

 them unfit for food, and they are not stored. 1 have noticed many 

 piles of these spoiled leaves rotting on the ground that had been 

 damaged by being caught iu the. rain. 



In my observations on the habits of the cutting ants, I have not 

 discovered them eating anything besides the foliage of various plants; 

 neither have I ever noticed them carrying anything else into their 

 cities. Prof. S. B. Buckley, who is a very close and accurate observer, 

 states that he saw them carrying hackberries {Celt is occidentalis), and 

 that they eat insects, tumble-bugs, &c. The hackberry has a sweet 

 pulpy covering, and I think it likely that if one of the leaf-eating ants 

 was to find a hackberry, it would try to carry it home, but it being a 

 perfect globe, a little too large for the span of its mandibles, I see not 

 how it could effect it. As to their feeding on insects, I shall not 

 pretend to deny it, for these wonderful, cunning and very sagacious 

 ants doubtless perform many habitual actions that have passed un- 

 noticed in my eighteen years observation. It is stated that this 

 species of ant does not lay up stores of provisions for winter supplies. 

 I have not opened one of their cities during winter, and therefore 

 cannot assert that they do ; but from the immense quantities of leaves 

 collected by them during the autumnal months, which are carefully sun- 

 dried and taken into the city, I should feel at a loss to say, if it is not 

 inteuded for winter food, what other use they can put such quantities 

 of leaves to, aud furthermore, wheu it is known to be the kind of food 



