AGRICULTURAL ANTS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2094, 8 December 1879, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL ANTS.

In a communication to Mr Darwin which was published in the “ Journal” of the|Linnean Society of London,in 1862 Dr Gideon Lincecum gave an account of “ The Agricultural Auts of Texas.” Much interest was excited by the account, but the accuracy of the observations being doubted, Mr H. C. McCook went to Texas last summer for the express purpose of testing them. According to Dr. Lincecum the seeds of an “ant rice” are regularly sowed by these insects in the autumn, kept weeded during winter and spring, and reaped in summer. Round the ant nest a large circular disc about 12 feet in diameter is cleared of vegetation, and round the border of this “ clearing” the seed is sown. Mr M‘Cook unfortunately could only spare three weeks of July in observation, and though able to verify the existence of the “ crop,” and the “reaping,” he could not verify the “sowing” which is looked on as the most improbable part of the process. So far as his observations go they corroborate Dr Lincecum, and render it probable that further investigations will bear him fully out and add another wonder to the insect world.