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It depends on the kind of harvester ant and what kinds of seeds there are where they live. Some eat various kinds of grain, that is to say the seeds of grasses. The grains we grow for harvest come from grasses that grow especially big seeds, but harvester ants generally go for wild grass seeds of a moderate size. This is not to say that they will not also gather the seeds of commercial grains.

Some kinds of seeds get eaten by the ants, others grow a lumpy part called an elaiosome that is suitable for the ants to eat. The real seed of such plants either is not good to eat, or has a very hard shell. Once the ants have eaten the elaiosome off the seed, they dump the real seed in the area where they collect their rubbish. There the seed can germinate and the rubbish acts as a fertiliser for the plant. When a plant relies on ants to distribute its seeds, we speak of the process as myrmecochory.

Apart from the grains that the harvester ants eat (which is not myrmecochory, because the seeds themselves get eaten), we find myrmecochory in pod bearing plants like some kinds of Acacia, but also in some species of Agathosma and some species of Euphorbia

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Q: What seeds do harvester ants eat?
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