376 ants' niTsts. 



etherised state 5,600 cubic centimetres). The larvae and pupse 

 first collected by Dr. W. Miiller and examined by me lie at 

 liberty among the ants, and are carried by them. The robbing 

 expeditions are undertaken in the daytime, and the booty is 

 carried to the migratory nest, where it serves chiefly as food for 

 the larvae. When one locality has been sufficiently pillaged, the 

 whole colony migrates to another resting place. These latter 

 migrations with bag and baggage — that is to say, with the brood — 

 takes place exclusively at night. 



Far less is known about the nests of the bHnd species of Ecito7i 

 and the entirely blind migratory ant genera, Dolyrus and y^djiictus, 

 whose workers had previously, like the male of Ecito?i (labidus), 

 been classed as separate genera {Typhlopone^ Westw., and Typh- 

 latta, Smith) because their connection with the previously described 

 males was not yet known. I have myself seen Dorylus juvenculus 

 at Gabes, South Tunis, hunting underground. The winged males 

 of Dorylus juvenculus^ Fab. {badius^ Gerst.), Eciton hetschkoi^ Mayr, 

 and yEnictus 7vroughtonii^ Forel, have been seen creeping out of 

 the ground in company with workers and flying away. The very 

 nest of Dorylus helvorus was dug up by Tremen, who found the 

 female. Nothing more definite, however, is known. Are the 

 plundered nests of other ants used for the moment as migratory 

 nests ? Are there here nocturnal migrations, too, and not robbing 

 expeditions only ? The future must tell us. At all events, judg- 

 ing by the observations made up to this time, including my own, 

 Dorylus and Quietus appear to prefer the neighbourhood of human 

 habitations, and to fight underground with other ants. 



10. — Road-Building. 



Certain European ants — Formica rufa, F. prateftsis, and Lasius 

 fuligmosus — build genuine roads in our meadows. The finest and 

 best finished are those of Formica pratensis^ De Geer. A meadow, 

 as has already been said, is a primeval forest to the ants. If the 

 ants are, like Formica pratensis, rather large, and if they are com- 

 pelled, like that species, to drag home all kinds of timbers as 

 building materials, as well as animal booty, a meadow, which 

 otherwise furnishes them with the finest hunting grounds, presents 

 terrible obstacles. Formica pratensis is awkward ; we need only 



