The lively fable of the ant and the grasshopper, as related by La Fontaine, has done much towards familiarizing and keeping alive in the minds of many of us the idea that ants habitually provide stores against the winter; but we must not infer from this narration that the witty French author had ever cared to examine for himself whether the fable, which he borrowed from Æsop, had its foundation in fact or not. The following translation from, the Greek original[12] bears in a much higher degree the impress of personal and accurate observation.
[12] For this translation and all the foregoing extracts from ancient and mediæval authors I have to thank my brother, M. W. Moggridge.
Μὑρμηκες καἰ Τἑττιξ: The Ants and the Grasshopper. Once in winter time the ants were sunning their seed-store which had been soaked by the rains. A grasshopper saw them at this, and being famished and ready to perish, he ran up and begged for a bit. To the ant's question, "What were you doing in summer, idling, that you have to beg now?" he answered, "I lived for pleasure then, piping and pleasing travellers." "O, ho!" said they, with a grin, "dance in winter, if you pipe in summer. Store seed for the future when you can, and never mind playing and pleasing travellers."[13] It would be easy to multiply instances in which the older authors allude to this habit, but enough have been given to afford a sample of what may easily be found repeated elsewhere, and I will now quote a few instances which illustrate the more modern belief, utterly opposed to that so long maintained by the ancients.
[13] Æsopicæ Fabulæ (Tauchnitz edition), p. 92.
Messrs. Kirby and Spence[14] discuss the matter in the following terms:—"When we find the writers of all nations and ages unite in affirming that, having deprived it of the power of vegetating, ants store up grain in their nests, we feel disposed to give larger credit to their assertions. Writers in general have taken ... (this) ... for granted. But when observers of nature began to examine the manners and economy of these creatures more narrowly, it was found, at least with respect to the European species of ants, that no such hoards of grain were made by them; and, in fact, that they had no magazines in their nests in which provisions of any kinds were stored up."
[14] Entomology, ed. 7 (1856), p. 313.
They then proceed to explain how easily the white pupæ, which the ants carry about in their jaws, may have been mistaken for grains of wheat, and to inform us that the accurate observations of Mr. Gould, published in 1747, were among the first which led to the correction of this error. "However," they continue, "it may be otherwise with exotic ants, for although during the cold of our winters they are generally torpid and need scarcely any food, yet in warmer regions, during the rainy seasons, when they are probably confined to their nests, a store of provisions may be necessary for them."
The author of the article on ants in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible says, in reference to the assertion that ants store seed, that "observation of the habits of ants does not confirm this belief."
Latreille[15] denies it in the following emphatic terms: "N'attribuons pas à la fourmi une prévoyance inutile: engourdie pendant l'hiver, pourquoi formeroit elle des greniers pour cette saison?"
[15] Hist. Nat. des Fourmis, 1802.