ANT COMMUNITIES 



1887, while visiting Scotland, I spent two days at the 

 Trossachs Hotel, which is located in the glen known as 

 the "Pass of Achray,' 1 through which flows the little 

 Achray river (or creek) which Sir Walter Scott describes 

 as "the stream that joins Loch Katrine to Achray." 

 Here I found a number of nests of Formica rufa, the well- 

 known "horse ant," or "wood ant," of Great Britain. 

 They were built on either side of the footwalk that leads 

 from the Trossachs glen to "the sluices," as they are 

 popularly called, which regulate the stage of water in 

 Loch Katrine, the source of supply for the city of Glas- 

 gow. The demands of humanity are imperative; but 

 the lovers of romance cannot but mourn that the spell 

 which Scott's genius has thrown over such beautiful 

 spots as "Ellen's Isle" and the "Silver Strand" is 

 being dissolved before the engineer's need for greater 

 water-storage capacity. 



The mounds raised by the rufous ants were found to 

 be cones of earth intermingled with chippage of various 

 sorts. They were about three feet high, and some of 

 them from six to seven feet in diameter across the base. 

 They resembled those of our mound-making ants of the 

 Alleghanies in general appearance, but their builders 

 seemed to make a freer use of leafage and chippage to 

 work up and cover their nests. The surface was quite 

 thickly thatched with bits of straw and leaves, stalks of 

 grass, pieces of fern, and various like materials. Num- 

 bers of openings appeared upon the surface at irregular 

 intervals from the summit to the base, and at 4 P.M. 

 many workers were dragging the chippage back and forth, 

 as though arranging to close the doors for the night. 

 [McC. 23, p. 336.] 



These huge cones stand in the midst of the tall 



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