124 HOME STUDIES IN NATUKE. 



crumbs of cake and small lumps of dry, hard sugar near 

 the blocks, which they soon found and carried within. 

 Three days afterwards I carefully separated the blocks, 

 and found the dining-room, where the cake and sug- 

 ar had been taken. The blocks were dry, and placed 

 where no moisture could reach them except what the 

 ants might convey, and yet the cake and sugar were 

 dissolved into a pulpy mass. The larvae were in dry 

 chambers not far removed from the food. This indi- 

 cates that the harvesting auts bring their stored seeds 

 from the granaries to another room as needed, and 

 have some process unknown to us whereby they make 

 the seed into available food. 



When some reconnoitring member of the community 

 has found an abundant harvest, the news is soon im- 

 parted, and the workers form in line and march to the 

 spot. Here the line is broken, and the numerous indi- 

 viduals scatter about and- collect the seeds, when they 

 again form in line and return over the same road. Day 

 after day this road is traversed, until the grain is ex- 

 hausted, or until some enterprising member has found 

 better harvesting grounds, when the old field is forsaken 

 for the new. I have never seen the soldiers in line 

 with the laborers carrying seeds, but they are always 

 at the front, where strength and courage are required, 

 and they will work in case of an emergency. 



In common with other ants, the harvesters are very 

 partial to animal food, upon which, no doubt, they 

 greatly subsist during the summer. A dead fly several 



