ANT COMMUNITIES 



The point at which it ended was forty and a half inches 

 below the level of the main gate and twenty-nine and a 

 half inches beneath the level of the hillside. In all, the 

 ants had excavated thirty-six cubic feet of rock, and 

 this space was honeycombed with galleries and rooms. 

 The latter varied from five to six inches long, three to 

 four wide, and about three-fourths of an inch high. 

 The walls and floors of these rooms were smooth, but 

 the roofs were left in their natural roughness, thus 

 forming a better foothold for the rotunds, or honey- 

 bearers, who were perched upon them, clinging thereto 

 with their claws, and closely clustered together. [McC. 

 4, pp. 36, 37.] 



The Occident ant (Pogonomyrmex occidentalis) is closely 

 related to the agricultural ant in structure and habit 

 (Fig. 18). But the typical forms vary decidedly in their 

 exterior architecture, the Occident having its commune 

 overbuilt with a prominent cone coated with pebbles, 

 while the typical agricultural keeps the space around its 

 gate free from all growth. Both species, like the mound- 

 making ants of the. Alleghanies, are among those that 

 found and maintain vast communities, and therefore 

 have a special interest to us in our present studies. 

 Their homes are often wrought in a tough clay that is 

 almost as hard to excavate as the red sandstone of the 

 Garden of the Gods, and equally taxes the resources of 

 the workers. The arrangement of rooms into stories 

 is here also carried out, and to a surprising extent. In 



one nest of the Occident ant a story was found at a depth 



i 



of over eight feet beneath the surface (Fig. 19). 



Those who are curious in such comparisons might 

 find grounds here for a striking parallel between the 

 achievement of an ant three-eighths of an inch high 



20 



