222, MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 
(Trans, Ent. Soc. vol.i. p. 103., Atta p. S.), has clearly proved that 
this Indian species collects so large a store of grass seeds as to last 
from January and February, the time of their ripening, till October ; 
having observed, on the 13th of the latter month, these insects en- 
gaged in bringing up their stores of seed to dry it after the closing 
thunderstorms* of the monsoon; and M. Lund observes, that the 
species of ants in Brazil, instead of disappearing during the three 
months of winter, appear rather to augment in their numbers in con- 
sequence of the great migrations which take place during those 
months. Dolichoderus attelaboides Z., however, which subsists upon 
the saccharine fluid secreted by the Cercopidz, retires to its nests 
during those months, evidently in consequence of there being none of 
the last-named insects during that season from which it might obtain 
a supply of food. 
There are many peculiarities in the history and development of 
these insects, which require a more careful investigation than has 
hitherto been given to them. Our countryman Gould, and the 
Swiss naturalist Huber, have indeed made us acquainted with 
many of the secrets of the formicary, to which I can but very 
slightly allude. The nests are generally made underground, but 
they differ considerably as to their construction: some species 
(F. fusca, &c.) merely remove the particles of earth, thereby forming 
large chambers and tunnels, to which our railway-tunnels offer but 
a poor comparison; others (F. rufa, &c.) collect great quantities of 
materials, consisting of bits of straws, sticks, &c., heaped up into a 
conical mass, well known under the name of ant hills, the interior of 
_ which, notwithstanding its rough outside, exhibits an admirable ar- 
rangement: others, again, construct them of earth, similarly elevated, 
many of the cells being above, and others below, the surface of the 
earth: others, again (F. fuliginosa), construct them in the trunks of 
old trees, which they gnaw into numberless stories; and others 
use sawdust in forming their buildings, stiffening it into a kind of 
papier maché. F¥. flava (Formica bispinosa Oliv. fungosa L’ab.), an 
inhabitant of Cayenne, constructs its nests of the cottony matter 
enclosed in the capsules of Bombax, forming it into a spongy mass 
(Latr., Hist. Nat. Fourm. p.134.; Lescalier, Tabl. Cayenne p. 151.), 
very serviceable as amadou, or as a material for stopping the most 
* It may, however, be observed, first, that a very large quantity of grain remained 
after the season of dearth was over (leading to the supposition that it had not been 
employed for food) ; and, second, that the known nutriment of ants consists of animal 
and vegetable fluids, and not of grain. 
