Читать книгу Harvesting Ants and Trap-Door Spiders. Notes and Observations on Their Habits and Dwellings онлайн

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ssss1 Huber, on Ants, translated by J. R. Johnson, 1820.

It is now well known, however, that exceptions must probably be made in tropical countries, for the observations of Lieut.-Col. Sykesssss1 and Dr. Jerdonssss1 have shown that many ants in India collect grain in large quantities, robbing the crops and plants cultivated in gardens, and even stealing seeds put away in drawers, the inference being that they employ them for food. The same observers have recorded how the ants may be seen after wet weather bringing out the grain to dry in the sun.

ssss1 Lieut.-Col. Sykes, Description of New Indian Ants, in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., i. 103 (1836), where a single species of ant, which he names Atta providens, is described, and its habit of harvesting recorded.

ssss1 Dr. Jerdon, Madras Journal Lit. and Sc. (1851), where three species are stated to harvest seeds on a large scale—namely, Œcodoma (or Atta) providens, Œcodoma diffusa, and Atta rufa, all of which belong to the same section of ants as our Mentonese harvesters, Atta barbara, Atta structor, and Pheidole (or Atta) megacephala. These very interesting observations of Dr. Jerdon's, as well as those of Lieut.-Col. Sykes, will be found in Appendix B.