24 HABITATIONS OF ANTS. 



up into conical masses. Some construct their nests of 

 earth, the cells being partly above, partly below, the 

 natural level. Some are entirely underground, others 

 eat into the trunks of old trees. 



In warmer climates the variations are still more 

 numerous. Formica bispinosa, of Cayenne, forms its 

 nest of the cottony matter from the capsules of Bombax. 

 Sykes has described' a species of Myrinica which 

 builds in trees and shrubs, the nest consisting of thin 

 leaves of cow-dung, arranged like tiles on the roof of a 

 house ; the upper leaf, however, covering the whole. 



In some cases the nests are very extensive. Bates 

 mentions that while he was at Para an attempt was 

 made to destroy a nest of the Sauba ants by blowing 

 into it the fumes of sulphur, and he saw the smoke 

 issue from a great number of holes, some of them not 

 less than seventy yards apart. 



A community of ants must not be confused with an 

 ant hill in the ordinary sense. Very often indeed a 

 community has only one dwelling, and in most sj)ecies 

 seldom more than three or four. Some, however, form 

 numerous colonies. M. Forel even found a case in 

 which one nest of F. exsecta had no less than two 

 hundred colonies, and occupied a circular sj^ace with a 

 radius of nearly two hundred yards. \\^ithin this area 

 they had exterminated all the other ants, except a few 

 nests of Tapinoma erraticum, which survived, thanks 

 to their great agility. In these cases the number of 

 * Trans. Ent. Sue, vol. i. 



