240 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



wlien it is simply a cavity in the earth. Some of its 

 future inhabitants are seen wandering about in search of 

 materials fit for the exteiior work, with which, though 

 rather irregularly, they cover up the enti-ance ; whilst 

 others are employed in mixing the earth, thrown up in 

 hollowing the interior, with fragments of Avood and leaves, 

 which are every moment brought in by their fellow- 

 assistants ; and this gives a certain consistence to the 

 edifice, which increases in size daily. Our little architects 

 leave here and there cavities, where they intend con- 

 structing the galleries which are to lead to the exterior, 

 and as they remove in the morning the barriers placed 

 at the entrance of their nest the preceding evening, the 

 passages are kept open during the whole time of its 

 construction. We soon obsf^rved the roof to become 

 convex ; but we should be greatly deceived did we con- 

 sider it solid. This roof is destined to include many apart- 

 ments or stories. Having observed the motions of these 

 little builders through a pane of glass, adjusted against one 

 of their habitations, I am thence enabled to speak with 

 some degree of certainty upon the manner in which they 

 are constructed. I ascertained that it is by excavating or 

 mining the under portion of their edifice, that they form 

 their spacious halls — low, indeed, and of heavy construc- 

 tion, yet sufiiciently convenient for the use to which they 

 are appropriated, that of receiving, at certain hours of the 

 day, the larvae and pupee. 



" These halls have a free communication by galleries, 

 made in the same manner. If the materials of which the 

 ant-hill is composed were only interlaced, they would fall 

 into a confused heap every time the ants attempted to 

 bring them into regular order. This, however, is obviated 

 by their tempering the earth with rain-water, which, after- 

 wards hardened in the sun, so completel}' and efiectually 

 binds together the several substances, as to permit the 

 removal of certain fragments from the ant-hill without any 

 injury to the rest ; it, moreover, strongly opposes the 

 introduction of the rain. I never found, even after long 

 and violent rains, the interior of the nest wetted to more 



