322 Insect Architecture. 



When the nest is in the infant state, the nurseries are 

 close to the royal chambers ; but as, in process of time, the 

 queen enlarges, it is necessary to enlarge the chamber for her 

 accommodation ; and as she then lays a greater number of 

 eggs, and requires a greater number of attendants, so it is 

 necessary to enlarge and increase the number of the adjacent 

 apartments ; for which purpose the small nurseries which are 

 first built are taken to pieces, rebuilt a little further of a size 

 larger, and the number of them increased at the same time. 

 Thus they continually enlarge their apartments, pull down, 

 repair, or rebuild, according to their wants, with a degree of 

 sagacity, regularity, and foresight, not even imitated by any 

 other kind of animals or insects. 



All these chambers, and the passages leading to and from 

 them, being arched, they help to support each other ; and 

 while the interior large arches prevent them from falling into 

 the centre, and keep the area open, the exterior building 

 supports them on the outside. There are, comparatively 

 speaking, few openings into the great area, and they, for the 

 most part, seem intended only to admit into the nurseries 

 that genial warmth which the dome collects. The interior 

 building, or assemblage of nurseries, chambers, &c., has a 

 flattish top or roof, without any perforation, which would 

 keep the apartments below dry, in case through accident the 

 dome should receive any injury, and let in water ; and it is 

 never exactly flat and uniform, because the insects are always 

 adding to it by building more chambers and nurseries ; so 

 that the division or columns between the future arched apart- 

 ment resemble the pinnacles on the fronts of some old 

 buildings, and demand particular notice, as affording one 

 proof that for the most part the insects project their arches, 

 and do not make them by excavation. The area has also a 

 flattish floor, which lies over the royal chamber, but some- 

 times a good height above it, having nurseries and magazines 

 between. It is likewise waterproof, and contrived to let the 

 water off if it should get in, and run over by some short way 

 into the subterraneous passages, which run under the lowest 

 apartments in the hill in various directions, and are of an 



