490 ants' nests. 



of this substance microscopically magnified. Fib represents the vege- 

 table filaments, which are only moderately dismembered, so that their 

 structure may easily be seen; Cem is the ant cement, the color of which 

 varies from yellowish to brownish, and which can be recognized by its 

 shapelessness and its color; Mesh represents the empty meshes of the 

 network. Thanks to the coarseness of the substance, which is, conse- 

 quently, in an almost unscathed and unpulverized 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 photographed nest 

 of Dolichoderus hituherculatus 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 compact (not perforated) but 

 fine-grained pasteboard, greatly resembling that of the nests of the 

 common wasp ( Vespa germanica), but stronger. A section of the nest 

 was taken oft" perpendicularly in order to show the structure of the 

 interior. The nest is resting in its natural position on the bough where 

 the ants had placed it. It can be seen how the small branches and 

 leaves of the tree, glued together with pasteboard, are incorporated 

 into the nest, and how the main bough serves as an axle to support the 

 structure. It can be further seen how the labyrinth, constructed of 

 pasteboard, is built more or less concentrically around the bough. 



Some species of the genera Camponottts {C. charfifex Smith, fraili 

 Mayr, fahricii Roger, etc.), in South America, and Folyrhachis, in 

 the East Indies, manufacture a very similar pasteboard. Fig. 4 repre 

 sents a nest of Folyrhachis mmjri Roger, of Ceylon. The whole nest 

 of most of the species of Pohjrhachu consists of a single cavity of the 

 size of a walnut or of a hen's e.gg^ while the nests of other ants are, iov 

 the greater part, divided into chambers and passages. The egg-shaped 

 nest of PoJyrhachis nuti/ri, which I received from Major Yerbury, of 

 Ceylon, through Mr. Wroughtou, stands simply like the cocoon of the 

 silk-worm, on a leaf. The pasteboard of which it is composed resem- 

 bles that of a Cremasiogasier nest, luit is very weak and fragile, l)eing 

 made of vegetable particles slightly glued together with gland cement. 

 A silk thread has never yet been discovered in any of them. The 

 cement is in the form of yellow or brownish flakes and crosspieces, 

 precisely like that of Dolkhoderus hi.spiiiosK.s (tig. 18, the colored parts), 

 while the vegetable matter is entirely compact (without meshes) and 

 more finely dismembered, though still recognizable in its structure (not 

 pulverized); tiie walls of the nest are about half a milHmeter thick, 



folyrhachis scissa Roger, of Ceylon, builds its nest of exactly the 

 same materials; but it is irregularly formed, and is attached to leaves 

 rolled around galls, the crevices of which are closed with pasteboard. 



I have received similar pasteboard nests of Dolichoderus (iracilipes 

 Mayr and of a species of Gremastoyaster fixed upon leaves, from 

 Ceylon, through Major Yerbury. 



