HYMENOPTERA. ACULEATA. 197 



and valour of its natural guardians. The Eed Ants 

 return in perfect order to their nest, bearing with them 

 their living burdens. On reaching the nest the pupae 

 appear to be treated precisely as their own, and the 

 workers when they emerge perform the various duties 

 of the community with the greatest energy and apparent 

 goodwill ; they prepare the nest, excavate passages, 

 collect food, feed the Iarva3, take the pupae into the sun- 

 shine, and perform every office which the welfare of the 

 community seems to require. In fact, they conduct 

 themselves entirely as if fulfilling their original destina- 

 tion." Newman's Familiar Introd. to the Nat. Hist, of 

 Insects, p. 50. (From the " Zool.")* 



Slight as has been the preceding sketch of the habits 

 and manners of the Ants, too many pages of this small 

 book have already been bestowed upon them, and there- 

 fore but a few lines more may be devoted to the mention 

 of their architectural labours. These are no less wonder- 

 ful than their other proceedings, and the reader is referred 

 to the pages of Messrs. Kirby and Spence for a most 

 delightful resume of, and observations upon, this and 

 other of their achievements. Suffice it to say here, that 

 without bricks and without mortar they build their many- 

 chambered dwellings build them of loose sand com- 

 pacted apparently by some especial mode of manipula- 

 tion. Story upon story of chambers are there connected 

 by galleries and supported by pillars and buttresses, the 

 nest being closed and guarded by doors, which are daily 

 removed and nightly replaced. The edifices of various 

 species vary in plan, and display the application of 



* The above was transcribed some time ago, and the writer, not having the 

 " Zoologist" at hand, is uncertain as to whether it was transcribed verbatim. 



