302 Insect A rcliitedure. 



to form separate chambers. When the work is further 

 advanced, round holes are always observed, encased, as it 

 were, between two pillars cut out in the same wall. These 

 holes in course of time become square, and the pillars, 

 originally arched at both ends, are worked into regular 

 columns by the chisel of our sculptors. This, then, is the 

 second specimen of their art. This portion of the edifice will 

 probably remain in this state. 



" But in another quarter are fragments differently wrought, 

 in which these same partitions, pierced now in every part, 

 and hewn skilfully, are transformed into colonnades, which 

 sustain the upper stories, and leave a free communication 

 throughout the whole extent. It can readily be perceived 

 how parallel galleries, hollowed out upon the same plan, and 

 the sides taken down, leaving only from space to space what 

 is necessary to sustain their ceilings, may form an entire 

 story ; but as each has been pierced separately, the flooring 

 cannot be very level: this, however,*the ants turn to their 

 advantage, since these furrows are better adapted to retain 

 the larvae that may be placed there. 



" The stories constructed in the great roots offer greater 

 irregularity than those in the very body of the tree, arising 



Portion of a Tree, with Chambers and Galleries chiseled out by Jet- Ants. 



either from the hardness and interlacing of the fibres, which 

 renders the labour mo.ve difficult, and obliges the labourers 



