NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



and ill a straight course. The insect first rose to a 

 height of about twenty feet, which was soon increased 

 to forty, fifty, and even sixty feet, and this latter height 

 was maintained until the form was lost to sight. I was 

 able to follow the voyagers in several instances to a 

 distance of more than three hundred feet, before they 

 disappeared, at which time they gave no sign of alight- 

 ing. Others settled at a distance of sixty to eighty 

 feet. Some flew into trees near by, which might be the 

 upping-block for a second venture, or the midressing- 

 room for deiilation, in which case the ground must be 

 reached. The flight was in every case solitary, and 

 was in all directions, although generally in the course 

 of the breeze. This method of dispersing the winged 

 males and females by single and separate flight I have 

 observed in several species. In such cases the meeting 

 of the sexes and the marriage union must have taken 

 place in the air; unless we infer, against current belief, 

 that it preceded the flight. 



We are now to trace the first active steps in founding 

 a new ant settlement. If the ant is by instinct subter- 

 ranean, she makes a small cave or burrow in the ground, 

 wherein she lays her first eggs. If the queen is a car- 

 penter ant, she makes her initial cave in wood, doubtless 

 availing herself at the outset of a convenient knot-hole 

 or the boring of a beetle or other insect. The stages of 

 progress may be illustrated best by giving the history 

 of some examples carefully observed. The late distin- 

 guished naturalist. Professor Joseph Leidy, turned over 

 to me three fertile queens of the Pennsylvania carpenter 

 ant (Camponotus herculeanus var. Pennsylvanicus) col- 

 lected by him. One was taken August 9th in a chestnut 

 log; the others August 14th in the stump of a chestnut- 



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