The ants eat the seeds that they gather. They also feed their young with them.
One ant in Florida rolls up into little balls the dust, or pollen,[7] of pine cones, and stores that up to eat.
An ant in New Jersey cuts in pieces the little new pine trees, just as they get above the ground, and carries them to its nest.
Did you ever see the ant which likes sunflower seeds to eat? It is a large ant, and when it has climbed to the disk of the sunflower, it pulls out one of the ripe seeds and carries it away.
When people keep a nest of ants in order to watch their ways, they feed them with sugar, oats, apple-seeds, and wheat.
How does the ant eat the hard grain? Its tongue is like a file, or something like that of the little shell-fish of which I told you.[8] The ant can rasp, file, and press the grain, so it can get at and lick up the oil and juice.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] See First Book, page 82.
[7] See Third Book.
[8] See First Book, page 86.