The Ants 



deal with European species. Little is known of an exact nature 

 about the full details of the life history of any one species which 

 inhabits the northern half of the United States. Random notes 

 and occasional observations have been published, but a thorough, 

 conscientious study of all of the aspects of the life of one of our 

 commoner forms is still to be made. Even the little red ant of 

 households ( Monomohum pharaonis), or the pavement ant 

 (Tetramoriuni ra'spifiimj, or the common black carpenter ant 

 (Camponotus peniisylvanicus), or any of the common species of 

 Lasius or Formica, afford subjects for investigation which may 

 everywhere be found and which should be studied through one or 

 two years by some careful observer willing to record all that he sees. 

 There need be no great interruption from the weather, since 

 colonies of ants can be studied to advantage indoors. Sir John 

 Lubbock, in his charming book entitled, "Ants, Bees and 

 Wasps," carried such colonies along for several years. He kept 

 in captivity, in fact, about half of the British species of ants, as 

 well as a considerable number of foreign forms, and for several 

 years he had generally from thirty to forty communities under 

 observation. He found that the most convenient method was to 

 keep them in nests consisting of two plates of common window- 

 glass about ten inches square, and at a distance apart of one-tenth 

 to one-fourth of an inch, in fact, just sufficiently deep to allow 

 the ants freedom of motion, with slips of wood around the 

 edges, the intermediate space being filled up with fine earth. 

 The nests were kept covered over, except when under actual 

 observation, since ants very much dislike light in their nests. 

 On one side a small door was left. These glass nests were either 

 kept in shallow boxes with loose glass covers, resting on baize, 

 which admitted enough air, or on stands surrounded either by 

 water or by fur with the hairs pointing downward. Some of 

 the nests were arranged upon stands. Comstock tells how the 

 habits of ants can be studied in a school-room by establishing a 

 colony in an artificial nest. His arrangement practically follows 

 that of Sir John Lubbock. He takes two pieces of window- 

 glass ten inches square, a sheet of tin eleven inches square and a 

 piece of plank one and one-fourth inches thick, twenty inches 

 long and at least sixteen inches wide. He cuts a triangular piece, 

 about an inch long on its two short sides, from one corner of one 

 of the panes of glass. From the sheet of tin he makes a tray 



43 



