420 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY chap. 



" Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be 

 wise ; which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth 

 her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the 

 harvest." Our northern ants have not acquired this habit, 

 and during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, 

 much doubt was thrown on the subject by the naturalists 

 of northern Europe. However, the facts are now established, 

 and a very interesting account of them is given by J. T. 

 Moggridge, who studied the two species Atta harbara and 

 Atta stmdor^ at Mentone from 1871 to 1873.^ He saw the 

 ants hard at work collecting the seeds from the various 

 plants, and carrying them back to their nests. They broke 

 oflf the seed vessels, usually by twisting their stalks or 

 sometimes by biting them; they then picked up the 

 seeds with their mandibles and carried them off home. 

 There were two continuous lines of ants stretching from the 

 plants that were being stripped to the nest, those of one line 

 laden with grains hurrying to the nest, those of the other, 

 empty-mouthed, hurrying out to get fresh stores. In one 

 case the double line he noted was 24 yards long. Before 

 the seeds were stored, the husks were stripped off and thrown 

 into a heap outside the nest, and the naked seeds or grains 

 were then carried to specially prepared " granaries." These 

 differ from the ordinary chambers of the nest in having much 

 firmer, more compact walls, and it is suggested that it may 

 be due partly to the texture of these walls, which exclude air 

 to a large extent, that the seeds stored do not germinate, 

 and also possibly the moisture present is not sufficient for ger- 

 mination. If the seeds are damped by heavy rain, the ants 

 bring them to "the surface, and dry tliem in the sun, and then 

 carry them below again. Occasionally some damp seeds 

 are overlooked, and begin to sprout ; the ants then bite off 

 the radicle and dry the seed. Sometimes these seeds are 

 left on the "kitchen midden" outside, occasionally seeds 

 are dropped when being brought in, and so it is frequently 

 found that seedlings of different kinds spring up round 

 the nest, and in this way ants play a definite part in the 

 dispersal of plants. In collecting the seeds, paths are some- 

 times very regularly made, radiatjng from the nest in various 



^ Called by Wheeler Messor barbaris and Messor strucior. 

 ^ Harvestiiig Ants and Trapdoor Spiders (1873), by J. T. Moggridge. 



