THE CLEVER FAMILY OF ANTS 



S7 



It is easy enough to decide that they carry 

 leaves home to eat, but it might be well to look 

 in the nest and see. I found the entrance to 

 one nest at the end of an ant trail that led half 

 a mile from the hillside where the ants were 

 cutting leaves. The entrance was a hole four 

 inches across, level with the bare ground, at the 

 top of a ridge. In spite of the fact that it was 



After Belt and Wheeler 



Fig. 25. The Attas* gardens 



the dry season and the forest floor was covered 

 with dead leaves, all the leaves had been cleared 

 away for a rod or more around the opening of 

 the nest. 



The four-inch hole is the opening of a corridor 

 leading to a large underground room, and from 

 this room tunnels run to other rooms, in the kind 

 of network shown in Figure 25. The ants have 

 cleared the earth from these until each is about 

 as large as your head. That is a large room for 

 ants to make, but their work has only begun when 

 the room is made. Ventilating shafts run up 



