ANTS* NESTS. 361 



Other cases it is thinner and more elastic or flexible, but at the 

 same time has much greater power of resistance, and is much 

 more like paper or pasteboard, like that of wasps. Cremasfogaster 

 siollii^ Forel, of Guatemala, builds very peculiar galleries of paste- 

 board along the trunks of trees between the projecting portions of 

 the bark. They were discovered in these galleries by my friend, 

 Professor Stoll, who communicated this circumstance to me. In 

 Cremastogaster ra?iavaionce, Forel, of Madagascar, the pasteboard 

 of the inside of the large, round, tree nest is thicker and more 

 brittle ; that of the outer portion is always thinner, more elastic, 

 and finally, in the outermost layers, even perforated, having a 

 reticulate appearance, somewhat like loosely woven packing cloth. 

 The nest of Cremastogaster ranavaloncB is represented in my 

 Formicides de Madagascar (from Grandidier's Natural History of 

 Madagascar, Vol. XX., Part 28, PI. VI., Fig. 4, 4^, and ^b, and 

 PI. VII.). The nest of Dolichoridus bispinosus, Oliv., which is 

 composed of the seed hairs of a tree of tropical America (the 

 wool tree, Botnbax ceiba, L,), woven together with gland cement, is 

 very similar in appearance to the outer portions of this nest, but 

 still more coarsely perforated and more netlike. Fig. 18 represents 

 a small piece of this substance microscopically magnified. Fib. 

 represents the vegetable filaments, which are only moderately dis- 

 membered, so that their structure may easily be seen ; Cem. is the 

 ant cement, the colour of which varies from yellowish to brownish, 

 and which can be recognised by its shapelessness and its colour ; 

 Mesh, represents the empty meshes of the network. Thanks to 

 the coarseness of the substance, which is, consequently, in an 

 almost unscathed and unpulverised state, the ant cement can be 

 better distinguished from vegetable building matter in this case 

 than in the other kinds of ant pasteboard. 



Fig. 15 represents, in one-third the natural size, the photo- 

 graphed nest of Dolichoderus bituberculatus, Mayr, of Bangkok, 

 which was sent to me by the late lamented and well-known turner, 

 Mr. Heinrich Sigg, of Zurich. This nest is composed of a com- 

 pact (not perforated) but fine-grained pasteboard, greatly resem- 

 bling that of the nests of the common wasp ( Vesta germanica), 

 but stronger. A section of the nest was taken off perpendicularly 

 in order to show the structure of the interior. The nest is resting 



