AMERICAN HYMENOPTERA. 270 



It would be interesting to determine accurately the economy of 

 these various cavities, but for obvious reasons we must be limited 

 to a general knowledge of their uses. The younger Huber tried to 

 accustom Fuliginous Ants, a species of the Carpenter Ants of Europe, 

 {Formica fuh'<ji)iOi<a^ Latr.), to live and work under his inspection. 

 But the instinct of the creature for seclusion was too persistent to be 

 overcome even by the ingenuity of that eminent naturalist. Had I 

 been as well acquainted with the facts above detailed before dividing 

 the block as after, I might at least have observed moi'e carefully the 

 distribution and the larvis and pupae, which were found within the 

 cavities in great numbers. I can only say that as the block was sawn 

 in pieces these objects were discovered in all parts of the formicary. 

 They were certainly stowed upon the floors of the galleries ; and, I 

 believe, were massed within the vaults. As to the use of the close 

 chamber, (PI. II, fig. 2,) and the secluded vault, (PI. Ill, figs. 2 a, 3 a.) 

 it would be presumptuous to venture a conjecture ; but one may at least 

 raise the query : may they not have been royal chambers, the apart- 

 ments of the queen-ant, or the nursery for rearing the future or the 

 contingent sovereigns of the colony? Or, (which is perhaps a more 

 fruitful query) : are these the rooms in which the workers deposited 

 the eggs as they dropped from the body of the fertile queen ? 



The entire cubical contents of beam occupied by the formicary is 

 two feet in length, by about seven inches in width and depth. The 

 height of the formicary above the ground was about twenty- four feet; 

 the lowest cells were nearly four feet above the floor of the second 

 story of the flour-mill, in which it was situated. The ants were 

 thus removed from those exigencies of moisture and temperature 

 with which their congeners in the field have to contend, and it 

 is difficult to conceive how the varying altitude of the halls and 

 vaults could have served in the regulation of the temperature need- 

 ful to the health of the larvae and pupse, as for example in the hills 

 of Formica rnfa. The position of the formicary in the beam is noted 

 at PI. Ill, fig' 1, a. 



The external entrances to the formicary are circular and oblong 

 doors pierced at irregular intervals, in all sides of the beam. They 

 open for the most part into tubular, circuitous galleries communicating 

 with the interior. Some of them, however, enter immediately upon 

 spacious vestibules, which may have been used when occasion required 

 that the larvne and pupae should be brought nearer to the air. The 

 location of these doors, in connection with the general arrangement of 

 the galleries, appear to give ample facility for ventilation. A vertical 



