230 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



most trifling movements of my masons, and foimd they 

 did not work after the manner of wasps and humble-bees, 

 when occupied in constructing a covering to their nest. 

 The latter sit, as it were, astride on the border or margin 

 of the covering, and take it between their teeth to model 

 and attenuate it according to their wish. The wax of which 

 it is composed, and the paper Avhich the wasp employs, 

 moistened by some kind of glue, are admirably adapted 

 for this purpose, but the earth of which the ants make use, 

 from its often possessing little tenacity, must be worked up 

 after some other manner. 



" Each ant, then, carried between its teeth the pellet of 

 earth it had formed by scraping with the end of its man- 

 dibles the bottom of its abode, a circumstance which I have 

 frequently witnessed in open day. This little mass of 

 earth, being composed of particles but just united, could be 

 readily kneaded and moulded as the ants wished ; thus 

 when they had applied it to the spot where they had to 

 rest, they divided and pressed against it with their teeth, 

 so as to fill up the little inequalities of their wall. The 

 antennae followed all their movements, passing over each 

 particle of earth as soon as it was placed in its proper 

 position. The whole was then rendered more compact by 

 pressing it lightly with the fore-feet. This work went on 

 remarkably fast. After having traced out the plan of their 

 masonry, in laying here and there foundations for the 

 pillars and partitions they were about to erect, they raised 

 them gradually higher, by adding fresh materials. It often 

 happened that two little walls, which were to form a gallery, 

 were raised opposite, and at a slight distance from each 

 other. When they had attained the height of four or five 

 lines, the ants busied themselves in covering in the space 

 left betvv^een them by a vaulted ceiling. 



" As if they judged all their partitions of sufficient 

 elevation, they then quitted their labours in the upper part 

 of the building ; they affixed to the interior and upper 

 part of each wall fragments of moistened earth, in an 

 almost horizontal direction, and in such a way as to form a 

 ledge, which, by extension, would be made to join that 



