18G3.] 373 



Eemarks on Tent-building Ants. 



BY WILLIAM COUPER, 



Assistant Secretary of the Literary and Historical Society, Quebec, ic. 



An Ant occurs on tlie Homewood estate, near Toronto, U. Canada, that 

 consti'ucts a kind of papier mCicM tent over Aplikles^ parasitic on a spe- 

 cies of Alder. This structure is attached to the smaller branches of the 

 tree, generally about tsso or three feet from the ground. The material 

 used by the Ants appears to be fine dust fallen from the interior of decay- 

 ed hard-wood trees. They convert the dust into a sort of paste which is 

 carried up in small particles. It is wonderful to notice the steadiness and 

 rapidity of these little architects about their work. During the cooler por- 

 tions of sunny days, the whole working force (neuters) of the nest are out 

 at labor, running up and down on the main trunk of the shrub on which 

 the Aphides are living. Each ant on its upward course, having a small 

 particle of the ready-made building material in its mandibles, which it adds 

 to the structure, and the work is continued daily until the extent of the 

 colony of Aphides is under cover. The form of structure altogether de- 

 pends on the position of the Aphides. It is sufiiciently open interiorly to 

 give the ants and plant-parasites plenty of room and ventilation, and there 

 are also several holes leading from underneath the tent for the passage of 

 the ants. I am led to mark this form of Insect Architecture as heretofore 

 unnoticed in America, and although sufiiciently familiar with the structure, 

 the species, which is black, and about four lines long, is unknown to me. 

 Could not a correspondent of the Society at Toronto, procure the insect, 

 and its architecture? The locality is mentioned and the objects can be 

 found during the month's of June, July and August. Kirby, in his In- 

 troduction to Entomology, Vol. 1. p. 480, mentions the European F. ae- 

 thiops and F. flava, as using "sawdust in forming their buildings'', but 

 does not speak of the structure in connection with other insects. In Vol. 

 II, p. 89, he says: "sometimes to rescue them from their rivals, they take 

 their aphides* in their mouth, they generally keep guard round them, and 

 when the branch is conveniently situated, they have recourse to an expedi- 

 ent still more efiectual to keep off" interlopers, — they inclose it in a tube of 

 earth or other materials, and thus confine them in a kind of paddock near 

 their nest, and often communicating with it". 



* The ant ascends the tree, says Linne, that it may milk its cows, the Aphides, not 

 kill them. Syst. Nat. 9G2, 3. 



