true harvesting ant, and not merely a casual collector of seeds. Of the habits of Pheidole pallidula, a very closely allied and similar species, but one less frequently met with, I cannot speak with certainty, though it is quite possible that it also may be a true harvester, in which case it would add a fifth species to this class.
Both Pheidole megacephala and Ph. pallidula appear to remain inactive, or nearly so, during the months from November to April, and it is probable that they are only to be seen in full activity during the summer when I am not there to watch them.
There can be little doubt that any naturalist who will take the pains to note the habits of ants on the shores of the Mediterranean through June, July, August, and September, might collect a most interesting series of observations on harvesting and other species, and add to, and perhaps modify, those which my limited opportunities have enabled me to make.
There are three other ants[1]—namely, Formica emarginata, F. fusca, and Myrmica cæspitum, which may also occasionally be found carrying a few seeds, but this is the rare exception, as far as my experience goes, these species living on honey dew, sweet secretions, and animal matter, like the great majority of ants all over the world. I have never found seeds in the nests of any ants except those of Atta barbara and A. structor, though I have carefully searched for them in most of the nests of the sixteen species of ants whose habits I have watched.
- ↑ For some details of the habits of the sixteen species of ants observed on the Riviera, see Appendix A.
