ANT COMMUNITIES 



galleries are arranged in irregular stories, one above 

 another. They are simply the primitive cave in multiple, 

 with intercommunicating passages. And they increase on 

 the principle of any other social settlement to meet the 



communal growth. 



Manv of them reach 



/ 



i m m e n s e propor- 

 tions ; most of them 

 are comparatively 

 small. 



With the great 

 army of woodwork- 

 ers the same simple 

 type of architect- 

 ure prevails, modi- 

 fied simply and not 

 largely by the ma- 

 terial from which 

 the public build- 

 ings are wrought. 

 The storied subdi- 

 visions especially 

 are crowded within 

 a narrower space 



and ai'C leSS 



courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History) 



Fig. 16 - ORIGINAL CELL OF CARPENTER 



ANT QUEEN, AFTER WHEELER tmctty HI a 1' k C d . 



One who carefully 



studies the architecture of a long-established nest of 

 carpenter ants will find himself unconsciously tracing 

 out in miniature pillars, arches, aisles, vaults, and 

 domes of different orders of architecture. It takes but 

 a slight stretch of fancy to imagine that one is gazing 

 upon the ruins of an ancient seat of a diminutive type 



18 



