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Daily and seasonal foraging rhythms, dietary spectrum, foraging strategies and nest distribution of two sympatric seed-harvester ants, Messor bouvieri and M. capitatus have been analysed. Similar activity rhythms have been observed for both species: daily activity is unimodal in spring and autumn, and bimodal in summer. Maximum seasonal activity occurs at the end of summer and beginning of autumn. Their dietary spectrum is also very similar and composed virtually by seeds and other plant remains; the size of items is significantly different, those of M. capitatus being larger than those of M. bouvieri. Both species differ in their foraging strategies: M. capitatus behaves as an individual foraging species, while M. bouvieri forms narrow trails along which workers move before they diverge into their individual trails.