446 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



abodes in paths and roads, on the prairies and in the fields and woods. The}' 

 form their habitations in the ground, where they have many apartments 

 connected by tunnels about an inch in diameter. Some of their cellars have 

 deep shelves on all sides, where their food is stored. Their rooms are rarely 

 found at a greater depth than six feet, nor do their cavities often extend over 

 a greater area than from four to six feet diameter, over which, at the surface, 

 there is generally a more or less conical mound, sometimes as high as three 

 feet, with a principal entrance at its summit. This mound is merely the dirt 

 brought to the surface when they are making their tunnels and cellars. Many of 

 their dwellings have no mound at the surface, it having been washed away by 

 rains, and also either levelled by the hand of man or the feet of animals. We 

 first noticed the exodus of their males and females on the twenty-seventh of 

 last July, when the whole community were in a violent commotion. Then the 

 males and females issued from their doors in great crowds. Some flying away, 

 while others were seized by the neuters and dragged struggling off. During 

 the following month the females began to form new columns, commencing by 

 a few neuters joining a female and digging a small hole to shelter her. This 

 is daily and nightly enlarged, until its inhabitants and rooms become so 

 numerous that it also sends forth swarms of females, and neuters to found 

 new cities. 



Their chief food is the seed of various plants and grasses, but, like most 

 ants, they also eat flesh. They boldly attack all beetles and worms who 

 venture near their doors, when great numbers seize the unlucky intruder, and, 

 if it be a beetle, its legs are seized and body covered with ants, who bite and 

 sting at the same moment, by which the beetle is soon killed, unless at the 

 first he flies; and we have seen beetles fly away with ants hanging to their 

 legs, nor did the ants let go, at least while the beetle was in sight. The 

 stinging ant does not work during the hot sunshine ; but they labor at night 

 and during the cool of the day. On cloudy days their work continues. Indeed, 

 light is the busy time, among all or nearly all of the ants of Texas. Seeds of 

 various grasses and flowers are the principal food of the stinging ants, who, in 

 seed-time during the summer, lay up stores of food for the winter season, when 

 " Northers" come and storms rage, and confine the ants within doors sometimes 

 a week or more at a time. One of their habitations in Dr. Linsecom's garden, 

 at Long Point, in Washington County, Texas, was dug into to the depth of 

 about two feet, and large quantities of water thrown in to destroy the ants. 

 They recovered, and for several days after were busily engaged in bringing 

 their store of seeds to the surface to dry. A part of these, by heat and 

 moisture were sprouted, and unfit for preserving for future use, and these, 

 when dry, were not taken back to their cellars. Most of the seeds were those 

 of a species of geranium (Erodium Texanum). Miss Sallie Linsecom, a 

 daughter of the Doctor, went into the garden daily to see the ants bring out 

 their store of seeds, which she told us were more than half a bushel. 



Mr. C. G. Caldwell, who resides on the Colorado river, about eighteen miles 

 below Austin, has lately been digging in order to exterminate a nest. While 

 there, recently, we became acquainted with the shape of their cellars and 

 winding tunnels. Their apartments are rarely more than six or eight inches 

 in diameter, with shelves, as before stated. Often a tunnel descends vertically 

 to a room, then horizontally to another apartment, then up nearly perpen- 

 dicularly to other cells, which last rarely become wet even by very heavy rains. 

 Mr. Caldwell assured us that he had often seen their shelves full of seeds. By 

 such an arrangement of their rooms they avoid storing seeds in heaps where 

 they would be apt to spoil. During a very heavy rain at Cedar Creek Post- 

 office, in Bastrip County, that whole region seemed to be flooded; and we 

 waited with some impatience for the storm to abate, in order to see its damage 

 to the ant, the stinging ants having many nests in a prairie, which the rain 

 had covered with water. Next day we saw them bringing to the surface 



[Oct. 



