CHAP, iv SOCIAL HOMES 119 



exception will be taken to the use of the word archi- 

 tecture to designate this portion of the insect economy, 

 and perhaps the term can hardly be applied in fairness 

 to homes which are mere tunnels and galleries bored 

 in the earth or in wood. But who would deny it to 

 the exquisite pensile nests of the English wasps, or 

 those of many a foreign relative, to the geometric 

 precision exhibited within the hive of the honey-bee, 

 or to the edifices of some ants, as will be presently 

 discovered. 



Among the communities which combine their 

 operations, there are those of which the object 

 is simply the protection of the individuals com- 

 posing them. To these societies belong the cater- 

 pillars of certain species of moths. The homes formed 

 by these larvae, though they are not elaborate, are 

 interesting in several minute circumstances. But they 

 fall short in every respect of the attractive nests 

 fabricated by companies of insects in their perfect 

 state, in view not only of self-preservation, but of the 

 nurture and education of their young as well. 



Of these the nests of different kinds of ants are the 

 most simple in their character. None the less on this 

 account they are worthy of investigation, owing to 

 dissimilarity of design both in outward form and 

 internal plan, on account of the materials composing 

 them, and the manner that they answer the wants of 

 the species. Their size is astonishing, and outrivalled 

 only in the inferior departments of the animal kingdom 

 by the works of the coral animalcula. They may be 

 formed with earth, and consist either of excavation 

 underground, or of excavation combined with building 



