T' invade the corn, and to their cells convey
The plundered forage of their yellow prey.
The sable troops, along the narrow tracks,
Scarce bear the weighty burden on their backs;
Some set their shoulders to the ponderous grain;
Some guard the spoil; some lash the lagging train;
All ply their several tasks, and equal toil sustain."
Indeed, it would seem that among the people inhabiting the shores of the Mediterranean it was almost as common to say "as provident as an ant" as it is with us to say "as busy as a bee." Plautus[1] introduces a slave who, when attempting to account for the rapid disappearance of a sum of money of which he had charge, says,
"Confit cito
Quam si tu objicias formicis papaverem."
"It vanished in a twinkling,
Just like poppy seed thrown to the ants."
Any one who has seen the eagerness with which certain southern ants seize upon seeds thrown in their path will appreciate the correctness of this simile.
Claudius Ælianus, who lived in the time of Hadrian, gives a detailed account of the habits which he attributes to ants,[2] from which the following is a translation: "In summer time, after harvest, while the ears are being threshed the ants pry about in troops around the threshing floors, leaving their homes, and going singly, in pairs, or sometimes three together. They then select grains of wheat or barley, and go straight home by the way they came. Some go to collect, others to carry away the burden, and they avoid the way for one another with great politeness and consideration, especially the unburdened for the weight
