Marvels of the Universe 1161 
use to the colony, the other ants cut off their heads and throw them on the refuse-heap. A very 
drastic, but effective, method of getting rid of a superfluous working class. 
As has been said, it is now established without doubt that many ants do collect grain and store 
it. They bring up the seeds to dry when damp, to prevent them from germinating, and if any seeds 
sprout they gnaw that part away. Moreover, ants play no small part in the distribution of plants, 
as even in England several ants collect seeds which they carry home. Many seeds get dropped by 
the way and thus give rise to plants at some distance from their original spot. 
The Agricultural Ant of Texas, with which this article deals, has been stated, however, not only 
to collect seeds of a plant called “‘ Ant-rice,’”’ but actually to plant and cultivate them, and gather 
the seed next year. The seed resembles the grain of oats, and tastes like rice. 
The ant itself is of a ferruginous red colour, and possesses, in common with many species that 
live in deserts and dry ground, a beard of long, curved hairs, and is able to endure prolonged droughts. 
Their nests are variable in construction, according to the nature of the ground on which they 
occur, but are always fully : 
exposed to the sun. They 
generally occur among the 
herbage, and all plants growing 
on or around the nest are cut 
down, and a flat area, or disc, 
is cleared for ten or twelve 
feet round. Should a growing 
tree be near, they move the 
nest, or else strip all the leaves 
off the tree. Roads five inches 
broad near the nest, but 
narrower further from it, are 
made through the herbage for 
hundreds of feet in different 
directions, and these roads are 
weeded and kept as bare’ as 
the “disc It the) soil is) of a 
gravelly nature, the ants use 
THE AGRICULTURAL ANT. 
the gravel to build a cone or 
crater in the centre of the disc, The entrance to the nest here takes the form of a perforated cone. In most cases 
about three feet high, which is 
sometimes surrounded by a low mound, two or three feet in diameter. There may be from one to 
where the cone form is adopted the grass grows right up to its base. 
five entrances to the nest. The nests are perforated beneath with flat chambers, some of which 
form the granaries, connected by galleries. The granaries are said never to occur deeper than two 
and a half feet, but the galleries have been stated to reach a depth of fifteen feet. Some of the bits 
of gravel which form the cone are of immense size and weight as compared to the ants. 
Although they also feed on insects, and other seeds, the “ ant-rice”’ is the only plant stated to 
be allowed to grow in a circle round the nest, and all other plants are cut down as soon as they 
appear. This rice is supposed to be regularly sown before the wet season, and about November Ist 
the young green shoots spring up, and the seeds ripen in June of the next year. The ants carefully 
weed and attend to these plantations and gather the seeds. After malting and harvesting the seeds, 
the stubble is cut down and removed. They throw away the chaff and refuse, and the seeds are 
brought up to dry if damp. 
The founding of a colony is as follows: The marriage flight of the bright red females and darker 
males takes place at the end of June or the beginning of July. After which the female, having 
