286 Insect Architecture. 



covering, and take it between their teeth to model and at- 

 tenuate it according to their wish. The wax of which it is 

 composed, and the paper which the wasp employs, moistened 

 by some kind of glue, are admirably adapted for this purpose, 

 but the earth of which the ants make use, from its often 

 possessing little tenacity, must be worked up after some 

 other manner. 



" Each ant, then, carried between its teeth the pellet of 

 earth it had formed by scraping with the end of its mandibles 

 the bottom of its abode, a circumstance which I have fre- 

 quently witnessed in open day. This little mass of earth, 

 being composed of particles but just united, could be readily 

 kneaded and moulded as the ants wished; thus when they 

 had applied it to the spot where they had to rest, they di- 

 vided and pressed against it with their teeth, so as to fill up 

 the little inequalities of their wall. The antennae followed 

 all their movements, passing over each particle of earth as 

 soon as it was placed in its proper position. The whole was 

 then rendered more compact by pressing it lightly with the 

 fore-feet. This work went on remarkably fast. After 

 having traced out the plan of their masonry, in laying here 

 and there foundations for the pillars and partitions they 

 were about to erect, they raised them gradually higher, by 

 adding fresh materials. It often happened that two little 

 walls, which were to form a gallery, were raised opposite, 

 and at a slight distance from each other. When they had 

 attained the height of four or five lines, the ants busied 

 themselves in covering in the space left between them by a 

 vaulted ceiling. 



" As if they judged all their partitions of sufficient eleva- 

 tion, they then quitted their labours in the upper part of 

 the building ; they affixed to the interior and upper part of 

 each wall fragments of moistened earth, in an almost hori- 

 zontal direction, and in such a way as to form a ledge, 

 which, by extension, would be made to join that coming 

 from the opposite wall. These ledges were about half a 

 line in thickness ; and the breadth of the galleries was, for 

 the most part, about a quarter of an inch. On one side 



