Page:Harvesting ants and trap-door spiders. Notes and observations on their habits and dwellings (IA harvestingantstr00mogg).pdf/51

 would have to be rapidly consumed at stated periods and to be frequently renewed; but this is not the case. This is easily shown by an examination of the seeds contained in the nests in April or May, many of which will prove to belong to plants which fruit in the autumn and are not to be found later than November. Thus, for example, on May 5th at Cannes, I discovered nutlets of Cynoglossum pictum, which can scarcely have been collected later than the preceding October or November. Besides, during the time from the middle of January to the middle of March, scarcely a seed is collected under ordinary circumstances, there being extremely few wild plants in fruit at that season, and yet the granaries will be found well filled if a nest is opened at the end of this period.

A knowledge of the fact that ants in warm climates accumulate large and very varied stores of seeds retaining their power of germination, might at times be of service to travellers, by enabling them to obtain, by a stroke or two of the spade, an interesting collection of the seeds and the seed-like fruits of the country, when time and opportunity failed for obtaining them in a more satisfactory manner. The following list of plants, the grain, seeds, and small dry fruits of which I have found in the subterranean granaries of Atta structor and A. barbara, especially the latter, shows that the ants probably collect almost indiscriminately from any fruiting plant that falls in their way.

Fumitory (Fumaria, three species), honeywort (Alyssum maritimum), narrow-leaved sun rose (Fumaria viscida and F. Spachii), Oxalis corniculata, Silene, Linum gallicum, mallow (Lavatera cretica?), medick (Medicago),