Aug. 1, 1868.] 



HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



177 



which has occurred on the Cornish Coast and else- 

 where in the British isles. Most of the slides of 

 anchors mounted in Paris, and sold in this country, 

 are probably derived from Synapta vittata, a Red 

 Sea species. 



Finally, the wheels of Chirodota and of Myrio- 

 trochus, genera closely allied to Synapta, must be 

 adverted to, although foreign to our shores, as 

 examples of beautiful microscopic objects, afforded 

 by the Echinodermata, and if we have done nothing 

 more, we have shown that a great variety of forms, 

 magnificent under the polariscope, are hidden in the 

 uncouth bodies of these but little known " toilers of 

 the sea." M. U. S. 



CONCERNING ANTS. 



I AM induced by the communication of Mr. Holt 

 in your last number to send you a short ac- 

 count of what I have done, and thus to add my mite 

 to the investigation of one of the most interesting 

 of insects — the ant ; and I feel sure that if all who 

 have watched them closely would record what they 

 have noticed, and if all who have the opportunity of 

 watching them will do so, making these pages the 

 medium of publication, a great deal of light may be 

 thrown upon their history and habits. 



I had often, as a lad, come across them in the 

 fields, and frequently longed to be the witness of 

 some of their remarkable doings, as chronicled in 

 various books ; but, as I never was so favoured, I re- 

 nounced faith in all the traditions concerning them, 

 save one, and that I believed. I was told that they 

 stored up corn in their underground galleries, and, 

 to prevent it from growing, they bit off the part 

 that germinated. In turning over an occasional 

 ant-hill 1 saw the ants running off in numbers, most 

 of them bearing aloft in their powerful jaws what 

 I took to be this devitalized corn, but which I have 

 since found were the cocoons containing the next 

 generation of ants. 



Last summer I noticed numbers of nests in the 

 garden surrounding the house where I was located : 

 the greater part of them were in the beds and on 

 the lawns, but there were several opening on the 

 edge of the gravel-paths, and here it was much 

 easier to watch them than amongst the roots of the 

 grass. I felt great interest in them, and often when 

 I had time I used to spread a handkerchief upon 

 the path, and, kneeling down close to one of their 

 nests, watch them in their goings-out and comings- 

 in ; but the worst of it was that in a very short time 

 the handkerchief began to feci so uncommonly hard 

 and uncomfortable that I had to give it up. It 

 then occurred to me, that some sort of case might be 

 constructed that would contain them, and enable 

 you to observe their movements without having to 

 put yourself in a markedly uncomfortable position, 



and getting somewhat too freely titillated by the 

 vagrant ants making highway of your individuality. 



I resolved to follow out the idea, and so, to begin 

 on a small scale, at first procured a wide-mouthed 

 glass bottle, and covered the bottom for about the 

 depth of three inches with some fine soil well 

 pressed down, and lastly introduced some thirty or 

 forty ants. They seemed at first resolved to have 

 nothing to do with the new arrangement, and 

 crowded to the top of the bottle, over which I had 

 strained a bit of muslin. In a short time, however, 

 they began to descend, and then roamed round the 

 walls of their glass tenement, as if still seeking some 

 aperture of exit. In a little more than an hour I 

 was pleased to observe one digging away vigorously, 

 and by the next morning they had got a gallery 

 driven some distance from the surface, and they 

 were most of them busily engaged in extending it. 



Satisfied that the experiment would work, I 

 decided to extend the scale. My next contrivance 

 was to take a glass cylinder open at one end, and 

 about six inches in diameter, this was placed on a 

 circular piece of wood eight inches in diameter, so 

 as to give an inch margin all the way round, this 

 again was supported in the centre of one of the 

 large shallow pans that gardeners use for cuttings 

 and young plants. The pan was then filled with 

 water nearly to the level of the upper surface of the 

 wood, which was to act as a promenade platform or 

 watering-place for the ants. In many respects this 

 plan answered very well, though it had faults which 

 led me to design another ; in the first place the 

 wood is liable to warp, being constantly damp, and, 

 again, it is not sufficiently permanent and orna- 

 mental to introduce into a room. 



My last design carries out the same principle of 

 isolation, and differs but little from an aquarium or 

 fern case, excepting in the base. A glance at fig.195, 

 which represents a formicary in section, will readily 

 explain the arrangement ; it is simply the addition 

 of a shallow trough all round the base to contain 

 water, so as to confine the little creatures strictly to 

 their own dominions. Inclosing them on an island 

 in this manner answers much better than having a 

 movable top : with the latter arrangement some 

 are almost sure to escape when it is removed for the 

 purpose of supplying them with food or water. It 

 is much easier and cheaper to construct than an 

 aquarium, as the corner supports may be much 

 lighter, the glass need not be plate, nor need it be 

 fitted into its grooves with that accuracy required 

 for holding water. The trough of course must be 

 waterproof, and may be made so either with pitch, 

 or what I think would be preferable, with thin sheet 

 lead accurately adapted to it. 



Having thus got a formicary, the next thing is to 

 furnish it. The soil that I used was very fine and 

 free from stones. I had a few weeds planted in the 

 centre, which I think is advisable, the fibres of the 



