Abstract:Messor aciculatus (F. Smith) is a seed harvester dominant ant in the desert steppe ecosystem of northwest China. The investigation and experiment site lay in the fixed sand hill grassland of Hongwei at the Sha Po tou Protected Region in Zhongwei County in Ningxia. We dug 6 colonies of ants among which there were 600 ant workers fed on 30 kinds of plant seeds, among which 22 kinds were harvested and fed by the ant workers in the artificial raising experiment. Six dominant seeds were found in natural nest ...