108 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



O. anormis, likewise tunnel in the stems of bramble 

 and raspberry. In some nests of O. conformis 

 opened by the Peckhams they found each cell 

 contained about twenty-four small caterpillars so 

 tightly packed that after taking them out to count 

 them they were unable to put them all back, and 

 although motionless in their narrow quarters they 

 become quite active when relieved from pressure. 

 Our O. Icevipes is said by Saunders to be not content 

 with the natural lining of pith to its burrow, but 

 takes the trouble to give this a coating of cement 

 made from fine sand. 



Certain of the true Ants are accomplished car- 

 penters. We need not go beyond our shores for a 

 good example, which we find in the Jet Ant {Lasius 

 fuliginosus), a little shiny black ant. Its natural 

 nesting-places are in old trees and stumps, but it is 

 not above taking advantage of worked wood for 

 its purposes. Its method is to carve out wide and 

 ramifying galleries in the wood, leaving partitions 

 and supporting columns between the stories. It 

 follows no architectural plan in its operations, each 

 worker apparently following its own sweet will 

 and its own idea of what is advantageous to the 

 colony. One starts a corridor and works until it 

 is tired, then leaves off, and any other ant that 

 wanders that way carries the work a bit farther, 

 probably on a different plan. These corridors are 

 often cut out side by side, but on different levels, 

 so that when later the dividing walls are cut through 

 in places the result is rather higgledy-piggledy. 



