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

14 страница из 20

It seems strange that while travellers have reported the seed-storing habits of ants in far distant countries, our naturalists at home should have not only remained unaware of its existence in Europe, but even strenuously denied it. It is certain, however, that naturalists and others in southern Europe are more or less aware of the fact, but I have been unable to learn that any accurate account of the habits of harvesting ants has hitherto been published, or that any one has taken pains to discover what becomes of the seed so laboriously obtained.

It is true that in the Enciclopedia Popolaressss1 extracts are given from the remarks made by M. Genéssss1 on the subject, in which he assumes that the fact that ants collect and carry to their nest large supplies of grain and seed is well known, but states that he is at a loss to conceive how they employ them, unless it may be that they use them as materials for the construction of their galleries, for they cannot eat such hard substances, all their food being either liquid or of the nature of juices, "gli alimenti sono sempre materie liquide o materie sugose. Quanto ai corpi duri e secchi che le formiche raccolgono, io non so altrimenti riguardarli che come materiali di costruzione." It will be understood, I think, from what has gone before, that thus far nothing has really been ascertained as to the exact state of the case; for though the Italian author just quoted was aware that certain ants in the Mediterranean region do store seed, his knowledge went no further. Nor am I aware that any French author has published an account of this habit and its object; and in a recent abundantly illustrated volume founded on a work by M. Emile Blanchard, I find, on the contrary, the following very emphatic denial of its existence:—"The curious idea which appears to have commenced in very remote times, and to have been carried down by tradition, and which was assisted by the results of careless observations, concerning the habits of the ants in collecting and storing up provisions, as it were under the influence of a wise foresight, is evidently incorrect."ssss1 There was, therefore, clearly an opening here for close observation, and this I determined to do my best to supply.