Оглавление
John Traherne Moggridge. Supplement to Harvesting Ants and Trap-Door Spiders
Supplement to Harvesting Ants and Trap-Door Spiders
Table of Contents
EXPLANATION OF PLATES
SUPPLEMENT. TO. HARVESTING ANTS
SUPPLEMENT. TO. TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS
SPECIFIC DESCRIPTIONS OF TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS,
INDEX TO SUPPLEMENT
Отрывок из книги
John Traherne Moggridge, Octavius Pickard-Cambridge
Published by Good Press, 2021
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If it were not for this body-guard of workers it is difficult to see how the males and females in such situations could ever escape. It is also plain that if the worker harvesting ants were as liable to be seized and devoured as their winged companions, the species would soon become extinct, for they expose themselves more than ants ordinarily do, and their long provision-laden trains would be almost at the mercy of any enemy which could attack them without fear of results.113
[113] Speaking of the enemies of ants, I may mention having seen a young robin in England picking up and swallowing the workers of Formica nigra just as if they were crumbs. I knew that birds would eat the male and female ants, but I had thought the workers were exempt from their attacks, and, indeed, they must be so as a rule, for otherwise they would speedily become extinct.
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