CHAPTER III 

 ENGINEERING METHODS IN ANT STRUCTURES 



A TJ"E return to our lone pioneer laborer of the mound- 

 T T making ants, left, at the close of the last chapter, 

 in the act of beginning a work of repair upon her desolat- 

 ed commune. Her movements will give us an insight 

 of some emmet methods in this field of engineering 

 construction. One soon begins to see some purpose in 

 her work, for slowly the suggested outline of a gallery 

 takes shape. Meanwhile a second ant has wandered 

 that way. She halts and, with \vhat appears a. careless 

 mien, surveys the scene. Then, struck by an impulse 

 that probably is as mysterious in its origin to her as to 

 her observer, she joins the first adventurer in her attack 

 upon the pile of earth-pellets and in their transfer to 

 the growing gallery. By a like process the squad of 

 workers increases from two to four, from four to ten, 

 from ten to fifty or more, until a busy company swarms 

 over the works, which are rapidly taking distinct form 

 as an arched gallery. 



The pioneer of this enterprise has long ago been lost to 

 sight among her comrades, and one regrets the lack of 

 brush and white paint wherewith he might have marked 

 the black abdomen, and thus have kept track of her. 

 It is certain, however, that the fact of her having been 

 the first citizen and founder of that settlement had 



given her no claim to authority or superiority of any 



49 



