CARPENTERS, HARVESTERS 203 



CECIL. The Carpenters live almost everywhere. They 

 Imild under stones or other objects, in soft or hard wood or 

 hark, and even in the ground. Instead of building a nest, 

 a colony may live in an oak gall or oak ball, in a dried 

 bean pod, in a nest along with other ants, or in one made 

 by another insect. 



FLORENCE. They're not very hard to please. 



CECIL. They may build paper houses in trees, as does 

 the hornet may even build mud houses in trees. 



FLORENCE. I read that some kinds hold their babies 

 in their jaws, and then use the babies as shuttles in spin- 

 ning and weaving silk with which to bind the edges of 

 leaves together for a new house. As many as a hundred 

 ants may work at this at a time. 



DOROTHY. What do their babies eat ? You know, we 

 saw the ants carrying some flies home. 



CECIL. They eat almost anything from honeydew to 

 the pith of trees. 



FLORENCE. These ants liked the honey and cooked 

 apple that I gave them, but carried the squash seed far 

 away. 



CECIL. A Carpenter has been known to go nine months 

 without food. 



KENNETH. January 27th, and it has rained an inch 

 within the last two days. Soon after the last rain, January 

 12th, our ants finished mining and closed up their doors 

 tight for winter. 



CECIL. And this rain has smoothed their doors over 

 until no one would imagine a thousand or two of ants 

 below. There's no sign of a nest. These Carpenters com- 

 menced mining as soon as ours quit. 



KENNETH. Several of the Acrobat nests are on low 

 ground and the workers are stiff with mud and cold, but 



