221 



ANT. 



ANT. 



222 



of the apartments which we laid open, amounting to a dozen or more 

 and there were probably as many more to which we did not pene- 

 trate must have been dug out of the solid clay by the ja,ws(mandibula) 

 of these little miners. We deemed it singular that we could see none 

 of the rubbish lying about, which must have been cleared away from 

 the interior; and we can only account for this by supposing the 

 colony long established, and the rubbish battered into the grass by 

 the weather. 



In other instances of mining, such as in the case of the Turf- Ant 

 (P. cieitpitum), the clay taken from the interior is built up on the 

 outside, using the herbage for buttresses to support the walls thus 

 formed. In the case of the Sanguinary Ants, however, we observed 

 nothing of this kind, and do not think they ever employ any exterior 

 masonry. 



Masonry. The most common of our English ants which employ 

 masonry is the Yellow Ant (F. flara), whose hills are so usually found 

 built up in old pastures, a foot or more in height, and from 6 inches 

 to 2 feet in diameter. For the materials of their building they are 

 wholly indebted to the soil below, which they quarry out with great 

 assiduity ; but as they have no means of tempering the clay when it 

 is dry, they are always forced to execute their principal works in 

 rainy weather. " I was," says Dr. J. R. Johnson, " in the habit of 

 visiting, almost daily, for a month, an extensive nest of Red Ants, of 

 which a large flat stone formed the roof. During my visits for the 

 first three weeks, scarcely a drop of rain had fallen, and the nest 

 seemed considerably injured by the continual falling in of loose earth, 

 which these little creatures with amazing industry removed, whenever 

 it happened any of the avenues were blocked up. No attempt was 

 ever made towards reparation ; but what was my surprise, on visiting 

 my little friends after a two days' heavy rain, to find that the repairs 

 were already completed, and that the upper surface of their habitation 

 presented as smooth a surface as if a trowel had been passed over it ; 

 yet all their work they had industriously effected by kneading with 

 the rain-water the loose earth into a sort of paste. From the nest 

 being situated in the midst of an extensive heath, where there could 

 supply of water, and from its remaining unrepaired during 

 the dry weather, it amounts to a full conviction that ants employ 

 no other cement than water in the construction of their varied 

 habitations. 



" I have often been surprised at the ingenuity of these little 

 creatures, in availing themselves of contiguous blades of grass, stalks 

 of corn, &c., when they wish to enlarge the boundaries of their abode. 

 As these are usually met with in the erect position, they are admirably 

 calculated for pillars ; they therefore coat them over with a fine paste 

 of earth, giving them, by additional layers, the solidity they judge 

 necessary for the work on which they are engaged ; they then leave 

 them to be consolidated by the wind, and afterwards spring a number 

 of arches, from pillar to pillar, and thus form an extensive saloon. 

 Should tlicv be at any time in want of small apartments, they have 

 only to prepare a quantity of moistened earth, and by placing this 

 between the pillars, and carrying it up to the roof, leaving here and there 

 an aperture for entrance, their object is completely attained." 



It is remarkable that the greater part of these masonic labours are 

 performed during the night, or at least iu gloomy weather. 



Carpentry. The coping which we have already described as placed 

 over the subterranean abode of the Sanguinary Ants, and which is 

 still more remarkable in the colonies of the Wood- Ant (F. rufa), 

 cannot be referred to any sort of carpentry, for the small sticks and 

 straws of which it is composed are not cut into fitting lengths, but 

 collected in the vicinity of the hill and laid on it after the manner of 

 thatch. The term carpentry, however, will apply most justly to those 

 whirh fin-Hi rxravations in the interior of trees, of which the 

 following is an instance observed in 1832. 



We had brought into our Kanli-n in the beginning of June, a large 



piece of a willow tree, which had been very curiously worked out by 



the species usually called the Emmet (F. fuliginosa, Latreille). The 



tree indeed from which it had been taken, appeared to have been 



destroyed in a great measure from the extensive excavations of these 



littli! carpenters. Yet the portion of the tree alluded to seemed to be 



singularly strong, when the great number of the cells and their 



]'i:ii]iiir structure was taken into consideration. The walls of these 



cells were literally as thin as writing-paper, though not f|uite so smooth 



and even, and they were seldom quite parallel, but arranged, some 



ji.-1-p.'iidiciilarly, and others slanting in various directions, worked out, 



Id p]>ear F u]xm no previous design, but beginning at any given 



|>"int, and only limited in extent by the worker discovering his 



approach to one adjacent. The tact with which they chisel away the 



win 1 with their jaws, to as to come so near the next cell without 



actually cutting into it, cannot well be accounted for on any of the 



riiiiiinon principles of human mechanism. It cannot be the result of 



vision, from tlm worker-out looking along the level of the plane, as 



our carpi-liters would do, and thence working so as not to cut 



-h it ; for the wall has, in most instances, though not in all, no 



free edge along which such a level could betaken by the eye. Hearing 



assist them however, supposing workers to be engaged in 



iing on each side of the partition, but it would appear to be 



troi. i touch, or rathf-r that modification of it denominated 



tact, which enables them to feel, as it were, when they have 



nearly penetrated the wall, and which consequently warns them to 

 stop. 



It is not a little remarkable, that all the wood which is worked out 

 by these ants is tinged of a black colour, giving all their streets and 

 lanes somewhat the appearance of having suffered from fire or of being 

 smoked. M. Huber the younger did not succeed in ascertaining the 

 cause of this black colour. We should conjecture it to arise from 

 iron contained in the saliva of the ants acting on the gallic acid of the 

 wood, in a similar way as the same wood becomes black when cut 

 with a knife. The fine glossy black of the ants themselves may 

 originate from the same chemical principle, and this is rendered more 

 probable from the excavations made by other species, such as the 

 Dusky Ant ( F. fusca, Latreille), not being tinged with this black 

 colour. Neither are the excavations of the latter so regular in the 

 form of the cells ; and the delicately thin partitions do not occur. 

 We have seen several colonies of the Yellow Ant ( P. Jtaiia, Latreille) 

 established in trees, though their usual habits lead them to prefer a 

 hedge-bank, the dry ridge of a field, or a small knoll on a common. 

 In none of these however had the workers much trouble in making 

 their excavations, the trees being in every instance far gone with the 

 dry rot, and the chambers were consequently as easy to construct as 

 in a knoll of sand. In the instance of the Black Carpenter-Ant 

 ( F. fidiyinosa ), on the other hand, the wood of the tree selected for 

 their colony is always hard and tough, the easiness of working it being 

 apparently considered a disadvantage rather than a recommendation. 

 We have usually seen these colonies, therefore, in growing trees, the 

 oak seeming to be preferred to all others ; the honeycomb-like work 

 does not seem to stop the vegetation, the tree continuing to put forth 

 leaves and shoots as before it was excavated for the use of the 

 colony. In the instance which gives rise to these remarks, the willow 

 tree was indeed dilapidated and shorn of its leaves and branches, yet 

 was it untouched with dry rot, and the wood was hard and tough. 



Food of Ants. Some species of ants are carnivorous and will eat 

 insects, fruits, and almost anything eaten by other animals ; but honey 

 is the most universal favourite among all the species, particularly the 

 excretion of the various species of Aphides, called Honey-Dew. It is 

 on this account that, wherever Aphides abound, we are always certain 

 to meet with ants carefully attending their motions and greedily 

 drinking the honey-dew, which becomes so injurious to plants when it 

 increases in quantity so as to obstruct the pores of the leaves. It is 

 stated by Huber and some other authors, that during winter the ants 

 imprison some Aphides in their cells, or, at all events, take advantage 

 of individuals of the Grass Aphis ( Aphis graminum ) in the vicinity 

 of their hills to obtain honey-dew. We strongly suspect there must 

 be some fallacy in this statement ; for among numerous colonies which 

 we have carefully examined during winter, we always found the 

 whole population torpid or nearly so, and not inclined to touch even 

 honey when we offered it to them. In the case of the Sanguinary 

 Ants in Germany already mentioned, we have seen that they had 

 become torpid as early as October, when the weather was still fine and 

 far from being cold. We are therefore of opinion that the statement 

 will be found as void of accurate foundation as that which represents 

 ants as storing up corn for the winter. 



Migrations. We have already seen, under the head of pairing, one 

 principle in operation for spreading around a parent ant-hill a number 

 of young colonies. This indeed may be considered the main principle 

 of migration ; but besides this, the whole of a populous ant-hill 

 which has been established for several years will, from some cause 

 beyond our means of tracing, though most probably on account of 

 more convenient forage, at once desert their homes and march to a 

 new station. Among the Yellow Ants, the Emmets, and the Wood 

 Ants or Pismires, this is by no means common ; but it is an every- 

 day occurrence among the Red Ants, the Ash-Coloured Ants, the Turf- 

 Ants, and others whose colonies never become very populous, and 

 are consequently both more easily moved and more easily provided 

 with lodging. 



" Immense swarms of ants," to use the words of Dr. Roget, " are 

 occasionally met with, and some have been recorded of such prodigious 

 density and magnitude as to darken the air like a thick cloud, and to 

 cover the ground to a considerable extent where they settled." Mr. 

 Gleditsch describes, in the ' History of the Berlin Academy,' for 1749, 

 shoals of a small black ant which appeared in Germany, and formed 

 high columns in the air, rising to a vast height, and agitated with a 

 curious intestine motion, somewhat resembling the aurora borealis. 

 A similar flight of ants is spoken of by Mr. Acolutte, a clergyman of 

 Breslau, which resembled columns of smoke, and which fell on the 

 churches and the tops of the houses, where the ants could be gathered 

 by handfuls. In the German ' Ephemerides,' Dr. Charles Rayger 

 gives an account of a large swarm which crossed over the town of 

 Posen, and was directing its course towards the Danube. The whole 

 town was strewed with ants, so that it was impossible to walk without 

 trampling on 30 or 40 at every step. And Mr. Dorthes, in the ' Journal 

 de Physique' for 1790, relates the appearance of a similar phenomenon 

 at Montpellier. The shoals moved about in different directions, 

 having a singula'r intestine motion in each column, and also a general 

 motion of rotation. About sunset all fell to the ground, and, on 

 examining the ants, they were found to belong to the Formica nigra 

 of Linnipus. 



