HARVESTING ANTS. 
101 
apparently undiminished quantities ; and I conclude from this 
that they had found out their mistake, and had wisely returned 
to their accustomed occupations. 
When the grain is thus taken into the nest, it is 
stored in regular granaries, but not until it has been de- 
nuded of its 6 husks 5 or 6 chaff. 5 The denuding process is 
carried on below ground, and the chaff is brought up to 
the surface, where it is laid in heaps to be blown away by 
the wind. 
It is a remarkable thing, and one not yet understood, 
why the seed, when thus stored in subterranean chambers 
just far enough below the surface to favour germination, 
does not germinate. Moggridge says that out of twenty- 
one nests and among many thousands of seeds that he 
examined, he only found twenty- seven cases of incipient 
germination. Moreover, all these cases occurred in months 
from November to February, while in the nests opened in 
October, March, April, and May, no sprouted seeds were 
discovered, though these are the months highly favourable 
to germination. He is at a loss to suggest the treatment 
to which the ants expose the seeds in order to prevent 
their sprouting. c Apparently it is not that moisture or 
warmth or the influence of atmospheric air is denied to 
the seeds, for we find them in damp soil in genial weather, 
and often at but a trifling distance below the surface of 
the ground ; ’ and he has proved that the vitality of the 
seeds is not impaired, for he succeeded in raising crops of 
young plants from seeds removed from the granaries. 
He also says, — 
By a fortunate chance I have been able to prove that the 
seeds will germinate in an undisturbed granary when the ants 
are prevented from obtaining access to it : and this goes to show 
not only that the structure and nature of the granary chamber 
is not sufficient of itself to prevent germination, but also that the 
presence of the ants is essential to secure the dormant condition 
of the seeds. 
I discovered in two places portions of distinct nests of Atta 
structor which had been isolated owing to the destruction of the 
hollow wall behind which they lay, and then the granaries well 
filled up and literally choked with growing seeds, though the 
ea:th in which they lay completely enclosed and concealed them 
