Black Harvester Ants and Dandelion Seeds (Veromessor pergandei)

Harvester ants are ants that eat seeds as the bulk of their diet. I've been giving my various harvester ants (Veromessor species, Pogonomyrmex subnitidus) their dandelion seed heads for years, but I haven't actually really stopped to film the process. So here we are. What's interesting is that small/young colonies do NOT figure out dandelion seed heads. Only larger/more mature colonies take apart the seed heads. Further, the 2019 story still applies: young ant colonies display some stupid behaviors. (In the story, one nanitic painstakingly hauled in a seed with fluff attached, while her younger sister in the nest found the fluff end and hauled the seed out as trash. Repeat.) So my hypothesis is that ants must learn (1) dandelion seed heads are full of food and (2) how to take them apart to get the seeds. It's also interesting to me the ants have learned to take the fluff off the seed while out in the field, before hauling it back home. Maybe the first nanitic was too small and weak to do so. Or maybe, some smart ant figured it out and the "memo" went out to other workers (I have other "memo" stories).