234 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



ovate, obtuse. Length without wings, 8 lines. Largest wings 1 inch 1 line 

 in length. Entire length, 1 inch 4 lines. 



Male. Resembles female, but is a little smaller, with its head and abdomen 

 more acute. 



These ants have homes in the ground. A few of their underground dwellings 

 have lately been brought to view, by digging, in order to kill the ants, because 

 they destroy what belongs to the farmer and horticulturist. The extent of 

 these ant galleries and cells, is so' great as almost to exceed belief; but several 

 of the excavations made to slay ants are within the incorporated limits of the 

 city of Austin, and have been seen by hundreds of its citizens. The under- 

 ground rooms of these cutting ants are rounded or oblong cavities, all con- 

 nected by cylindrical passages, of a diameter varying from one to three or even 

 more inches. Some cells are six inches wide, by nearly as many in height, and 

 others twelve inches high, with a shorter diameter of some six to eighteen inche.s 

 and the longer diameter three feet, and sometimes even more. These chambers 

 are often one above the other, and again side by side ; but on the whole, they 

 do not seem to be placed with any apparent order, being scattered under- 

 ground at various distances apart, from two inches to as many feet. In a 

 clay soil they appear to be coated or varnished with a very thin, dirty brown, 

 waxlike secretion. In sandy ground, to keep the walls firm, they are plastered 

 with a black limestone earth, abounding in portions of the prairies and river 

 bottoms. This often has to be carried a distance of many rods ; and then the 

 amount of their labor and its results are truly wonderful, showing their know- 

 ledge to be equal to that of any race of ants known. Their lowest chambers 

 are generally ten and twelve feet deep, while the upper cells are rarely nearer 

 the surface than eighteen inches, I extended a tape line down to the bottom of 

 one, and found it seventeen feet deep; at one of their largest dens, a room was 

 found sixteen feet beneath the surface, and several others were at near the 

 same depth. At that place, the ground is dug out from twelve to sixteen feet 

 deep, extending over an arta having an average diameter of twenty-five feet, 

 all of which was filled with ant cells. Several large avenues (4 5 in. diam.) 

 entered the bottom of this large den. On striking an avenue, some ants were 

 seen to enter it followed by others, loaded with barley, all coming from that 

 underground passage. Where they got the barley was the question, which 

 was finally solved by going to a stable more than three hundred feet distant ; 

 from which ants were seen to descend, each with his barley grain, and enter a 

 hole in the ground near the base of the stable, which was the only place in the 

 vicinitv where there was any barley. Another avenue on the other side, is 

 said to come out at the bank of a stream, between two and three hundred feet 

 distant, where are some elm trees, from which the ants obtained bits of leaves, 

 and carried them through said avenue into the base of the den. That they 

 have extensive underground passages, there is not the least doubt. A gentle- 

 man recently told me of an instance where they dug under or tunneled a 

 stream to get into a garden. There was a large ant den across the stream, and 

 for a long time the garden was safe from their depredations, but finally the 

 cutting ants were seen there, carrying bits of leaves into a small hole in the 

 ground. There was no ant den in the vicinity, except the one across the creek, 

 and as there were no dirt heaps on the surface of the ground in the garden, as 

 there always are above an ant den, the inference was, that those cutting ants 

 seen in the garden belonged to the tribe across the river; if so, it is probable 

 that some of their wise ones, when on the trees in the vicinity of their abode, 

 beheld the fine things in the garden, to obtain which they advised tunneling 

 the stream. 



The question will naturally arise, how is it possible for them to direct their 

 course in digging those long underground passages so as to reach the surface 

 at the wished for spot ? Let those who ask, also answer ; I only know that 

 such long avenues exist, having thrust a long stick into one at the bottom of 

 one of their dens, and I have also seen the outer openings of many of them on 



[June, 



