4 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXII, 



A year after the publication of Osten Sacken's paper, Couper de- 

 scribed some tents of the carton type i: 



"An ant occurs on the Homewood estate, near Toronto, U. Canada, 

 that constructs a kind of papier-mdche tent over Aphides, parasitic 

 on a species of alder. This structure is attached to the smaller 

 branches of the tree, generally about two or three feet from the 

 ground. The material used by the ants appears to be fine dust 

 fallen from the interior of decayed hard-wood trees. They convert 

 the dust into a sort of paste which is carried up in small particles. 

 It is wonderful to notice the steadiness and rapidity of these little 

 architects about their work. During the cooler portions of sunny 

 days, the whole working force (neuters) of the nest are out at labor, 

 running up and down on the main trunk of the shrub on which the 

 Aphides are living. Each ant in its upward course, having a small 

 particle of the ready-made building material in its mandibles, which 

 it adds to the structure, and the work is continued daily until the 

 extent of the colony of Aphides is under cover. The form of structure 

 altogether depends on the position of the Aphides. It is sufficiently 

 open interiorly to give the ants and plant-parasites plenty of room 

 and ventilation, and there are also several holes leading from under- 

 neath the tent for the passage of the ants. I am led to mark this 

 form of Insect Architecture as heretofore unnoticed in America, and 

 although sufficiently familiar with the structure, the species, which 

 is black, and about four lines long, is unknown to me." 



A more detailed description of a carton tent of Cremastogaster 

 lineolata than either of the preceding was published in 1882 by Pro- 

 fessor William Trelease2: 



"While collecting leaf -fungi on Andromeda ligustrina, in a sphag- 

 num swamp at Woods Hole, Mass., in the early part of September, 

 1 88 1, my attention was attracted by a small, rough mass, apparently 

 of dried sphagnum, surrounding one of the twigs, at a distance of 

 about a metre and a half above the ground. Curious to know how it 

 had reached that unusual place, and what it really was, I went to it, 

 and on closer examination found it to be a shelter erected by a colony 

 of about a dozen worker ants and a numerous herd of small wingless 

 brown aphides, which feed on the sap of this plant. 



" The twig on which the nest was placed had a diameter of about 

 3 mm., branched once at the top, and again at about 8 mm. from the 

 bottom of the nest ; between these branchlets a single leaf was given 



' Remarks on Tent-building Ants. Proc. Entomol. Soc. Phila., Feb. 1863, pp. 373, 274. 

 ' Unusual Care ot Ants for Aphides. Psyche, Vol. Ill, No. Q4, Feb. 1882, pp. 3 10, 311. 



