ARCHITECTURE OF ANTS. 535 
leaving only from space to space what is 
necessary to sustain their ceilings, may 
form an entire story; but as each has 
been pierced separately, the flooring can- 
not be very level: this, however, the ants 
turn to their advantage, since these fur- 
rows are better adapted to retain the 
larvae that may be placed there. 
The stories constructed in the great 
roots offer greater irregularity than those 
in the very body of the tree, arising, 
either from the hardness and interlacing 
of the fibres, which renders the labour 
more difficult, and obliges the labourers 
to depart from their accustomed manner, 
or from their not observing in the extre- 
mities of their edifice the same arrange- 
ment as in the centre : whatever it be, we 
still find horizontal stories, and numerous 
partitions. If the work be less regular, 
it becomes more delicate ; for the ants, 
profiting by the hardness and solidity of 
the material, give to their building an 
extreme degree of lightness. Ihave seen 
fragments of from eight to ten inches in 
D 4 
