Page:Harvesting ants and trap-door spiders. Notes and observations on their habits and dwellings (IA harvestingantstr00mogg).pdf/80

 and cells, constructed quite as in the wild nests, but more crowded together. The granaries were in many instances full of seeds, which, though very wet, [the surrounding soil being extremely moist on account of there being no drainage to carry off the water which I was obliged to sprinkle from time to time over the surface of the nest], still showed no trace of germination that I could detect. The ants were therefore able to exercise the same influence over these seeds, under the strange conditions of their captive state, that they do in their natural homes.

The foregoing remarks, as has been stated above, refer for the most part to only one of the three kinds of harvesting ants which I have observed on the Riviera—that is to say, to Atta barbara, the jet-black ant.

As far as the manner of collecting and storing the seed is concerned, all that has been said of Atta barbara applies with equal truth to A. structor.

A. structor is, however, less frequently seen above ground from December to March than barbara, and is more frequently found in or near the streets and gardens of a town.

The fourth species, on the other hand, the little Pheidole megacephala, differs in several particulars. This ant appears to shun the daylight, and to be most active at night, when, in the warm weather at the end of April, it may frequently be seen carrying large quantities of seeds into its nest. I have rarely observed it at work in the daylight, so that my knowledge of its habits is but small. Nor have I succeeded in discovering its subterranean granaries, though I have opened several nests. Still, I believe that it is a