312 Insect Architecture. 



ever, composed of that material, but of the fibre of the cotton- 

 tree (Bombax ceiba). 



[The fibre is in itself very short, barely exceeding an inch 

 in length, but it is cut very much shorter by the ant, who 

 contrives to felt it together in a most curious manner, so 

 that it is hardly possible to trace the course of any one fibre. 

 The size of the nest is, on an average, about eight or nine 

 inches in diameter. The insect itself is given in the preceding 

 illustration, but very much enlarged. If the reader will look 

 at the centre of the body, he will see the projections which 

 have given it the name of bispinosa, or two-spined. 



[The lower figure represents the nest of another species of 

 ant belonging to the same genus, and called scientifically, 

 Polyrachis textor. The nest is most ingeniously made of 

 little pieces of wood and tendrils, put together so as to form 

 a kind of open network, through which the interior of the 

 nest is plainly visible. This insect inhabits Malacca.] 



