278 INSECT LIFE. 



on the kind of nest made by each. The smaller 

 specimens should be mounted on cardboard points. 



Look for ant-nests under stones lying on the sur- 

 face of the ground, and when one is found containing 

 eggs, larvae, pupse, and adults, collect a set of speci- 

 mens illustrating the transformations of the species. 



Find a shrub or tree upon the trunk of which ants 

 are passing up and down. Watch some of the ants 

 that are going up and determine the object of their 

 journey. Follow some of the ants that are passing 

 down till they reach their nest. It sometimes hap- 

 pens that ants have covered ways several rods in 

 length leading from their nest to the trees that they 

 frequent. If such a road be found, uncover it care- 

 fully till the nest is reached. 



Write an account of what you have learned in the 

 field regarding the habits of ants. 



The Habits of Ants {School Work). — The habits 

 of ants can be studied in a schoolroom by establish- 

 ing a colony in an artificial nest. Such a nest is 



represented in Fig. 

 252. It is similar to 

 one devised by Sir 

 John Lubbock. 



FIG. 252.-An artificial ant-nest. J^e principal 



materials needed for the construction of a nest of 

 this kind are two panes of window-glass ten inches 

 square, a sheet of tin eleven inches square, and a 

 piece of plank one and one fourth inches thick, 

 twenty inches long, and at least sixteen inches wide. 

 To make the nest, proceed as follows : Cut a tri- 

 angular piece about one inch long on its two short 

 sides from one corner of one of the panes of glass. 



