ABSTRACT
The major problem caused by seed-harvesting ants is that they take large quantities of pasture, lawn or crop seeds sown on or near the soil surface. For example, in temperate Australia Pheidole spp. took 20% to 90% of aerially sown pasture seed (Campbell and Swain 1973; Johns and Greenup 1976b); in semi-arid Australia, ants removed up to 100% of sown seed (Andersen and Ashton 1985); and in tropical, sub-tropical and Mediterranean zones, ants take large quantities of surface-sown seeds (Russell et al. 1967; McGowan 1969; Mott and McKeon 1977). The rate of pasture seed removal by Pheidole spp. in temperate Australia, 139/nest/hr, could exhaust the total amount of seed sown (10 kg/ha) in only 16 hours of foraging (Campbell 1966).
