206 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



about, and the ants, working energetically, will often repair the 

 mischief in the course of an hour. Although most of the species 

 of ants resemble each other in their habits, instincts, and intelli- 

 gence, each one chooses a particular position for its nest, and esta- 

 blishes it upon a special plan, which has greater or less reference 

 to some peculiar habit. Huber calls those kinds which only use 

 ■earth as the material for their nests, Mason Ants ; there are two 

 kinds of them which are common over a great part of Europe, 

 the Brown Ant, Formica fusca, and the Mining Ant, Formica 

 ainiadaria. The neuters or workers of the first species are of a 

 blackish brown colour, and their bodies are covered with fine 

 black hairs, the antennae and legs being of a reddish tint ; the 

 females are of a brilliant black colour, and the males have fawn 

 coloured legs, but are otherwise dark. The workers of the 

 second species are of an iron-red colour, and the females have 

 the same tint, but the males are black. The brown ants, or those 

 of the first species, hollow out the soil and make in the interior 

 of a great cavity cells, galleries, and more or less spacious avenues, 

 all in stories, one over the other, and their nest looks like the dome 

 of a vault outside. The mining ant constructs its dwelling very 

 much in the same manner, but the roof never appears above the 

 level of the soil. These insects work the earth with their 

 mandibles, and make pillars, columns, and partitions out of it, 

 and do not neglect to fill up cracks, or to level irregularities, and 

 in fact they act like very able builders. The mason ants cannot 

 work during very dry weather, and they wait patiently, with their 

 buildings half finished, for rain, but should some parts of them which 

 were built up as the weather became very dry show any signs of 

 cracking, the intelligent insects pull them down, and wait for better 

 times. Huber gave some mason ants a good watering from the 

 rose of a waterpot when they were in this somewhat desperate 

 condition, and they set to work immediately, and built up walls 

 and cells, and completed a story in a few hours. 



Other ants live in old trunks of trees, and cut and work the 

 wood in a wonderful manner. Of these, Formica fidiginosa, which is 

 of a brilliant black colour, with pale reddish tarsi, is the most 

 common example, and its works almost defy description. .It 

 builds many stories, which are almost always horizontal, forms 



