Page:Harvesting ants and trap-door spiders. Notes and observations on their habits and dwellings (IA harvestingantstr00mogg).pdf/90

 attend upon aphides and seek for sweet secretions? (2) Do occasional harvesters ever form granaries?

In any case the name of "the provident one" is only, I suspect, fully deserved by a limited number of ants, and Æsop, in his well-known fable, might as properly have made the dialogue which ends in the recommendation to "dance in winter as he piped in summer," take place between two ants as between an ant and a grasshopper, as far at least as their respective foresight is concerned.

Why it is that one ant should require stores of food in the winter of which other ants have no need, is one of the many problems which only patient watching and careful comparison and experiment can help us to solve.

There are not wanting those among the many winter visitors of the south who have time in abundance or superabundance at their disposal, and might help to clear up these and many other mysteries, and to them I would strongly recommend the study of the habits of plants and animals as a pastime, if nothing more.

The way is open: it is not difficult to follow, and it leads to very pleasant places.