ARCHITECTURE OF ANTS. 23 
making new apertures; several ants might 
be seen arriving at the same time, thrust- 
ing their head from the entrances, mov- 
ing about their antennee, and at length 
adventuring forth to visit the environs. 
This brought to my recollection a sin- 
gular opinion of the ancients. ‘They be- 
lieved that ants were occupied in their 
architectural labours during the night, 
when the moon was at its full.* This 
idea was not, perhaps, without some 
foundation, and although the moon had 
doubtless no kind of influence on their 
conduct, yet I perceived something true 
in the observation. 
* Aristotle affirmed, that ants worked in the 
night, when the moon was at its full; Hist. Anim. 
]. ix. c. 38. Pliny also alludes to their nocturnal 
labours. ‘‘ Operaniur et noctu plena lund ; eadem 
interlunio cessant.” Gould states that they employ 
each moment by day and night, almost without in- 
termission, unless hindered by excessive rains ; and 
the author of a Memoir in the Transactions of the 
French Academy, remarks, that the ants, he ov- 
served, were so incessantly occupied during the 
night, that it seemed as if they never slept !— T. 
