106 ANTS AND ANT LIFE 



pally of plant-refuse, such as the chaff of grasses, empty 

 capsules, gnawed seed-coats, and the like, which would 

 occupy much space if left inside the nest. While an army 

 of workers are employed in seeking and bringing in supplies, 

 others are busy sorting the materials thus obtained, stripping 

 off all the useless envelopes of seed or grain, and carrying 

 them out to throw away" (pp. 16 21). In sheltered places 

 these heaps grow to a considerable size. 



In October, 1873, Moggridge found near the entrance of 

 a nest of A. structor such a rubbish heap, round in form, 

 which was twenty-seven inches in diameter and two inches 

 in thickness, its whole amount showing the existence of a 

 large quantity of seed within the nest. Indeed, when he 

 opened and more closely examined several nests, he found 

 masses of seeds carefully stored in large chambers. The 

 floor of these granaries is carefully levelled and cemented, 

 and can at once be distinguished by its appearance from the 

 surrounding ground. The rooms themselves were excep- 

 tionally large and regularly shaped, and were generally 

 abont the size of a watch-pocket. In each were found, on 

 an average, a hundred grains, and the quantity of grain in 

 a nest can be calculated, as it has often from eighty to a 

 hundred such single rooms, at about a pound or more. The 

 seeds belong to various kinds of plants, and Moggridge found 

 in one nest he opened the seeds of twelve different species, 

 belonging to at least seven distinct genera. The ants chiefly 

 gather the grains of cultivated cereals, doubless because they 

 contain more nourishment. 



Moggridge was most surprised as to the still not quite 

 explained way in which the ants prevent the seeds from 

 germinating and growing. It is a matter of course that seeds 

 cannot remain long under the ground, within the damp and 

 warm nest without germinating, and sprouting forth into 

 grasses or herbs, and this would defeat the object with which 

 the ants garner them. But Moggridge found, among thou- 

 sands of seeds, in twenty-one nests, examined for this purpose, 

 only a few which had germinated, and of these nearly the 

 half were so mutilated that the growth would soon cease. 

 There can, therefore, be no doubt that the ants, by some 

 unknown way of treating the seeds, make them incapable 

 of germination, at least for some time namely, for weeks 

 or months. Moggridge was not in a position to solve the 



