HOME OF THE BROWN ANT 



the black and mining ants, appears to be less carefully 

 chosen and forms a paste less fine than that of which the 

 brown, microscopic, and yellow ants form their abode. It is, 

 however, adapted to their capacities, to their needs, and to 

 the nature of the edifice they intend to build. 



To form a correct judgment of the interior arrangement 

 of an ant-hill, it is necessary to select such as have not been 

 accidentally spoiled, and the shape of which has not been 

 altered by local circumstances ; a little attention will then 

 be enough to show that the homes of different species are 

 not constructed after the same system. 



Thus the hillock raised by the black ants always has 

 thick walls formed of coarse, lumpy earth, well-marked 

 stories, and large chambers with vaulted ceilings resting 

 upon solid pillars ; we never find roads or galleries properly 

 so called, but large passages of an oval form, and all around 

 them large cavities and extensive embankments of earth. We 

 further notice that the little architects have preserved a 

 certain proportion between the widely arched ceilings and 

 the pillars which are to support them. 



The brown ant, which is one of the smallest, is particularly 

 remarkable for the extreme finish of its work. Its body is 

 of a shining reddish brown, its head a little deeper and the 

 antennae and feet a little lighter in colour. The abdomen 

 is dark brown, the scale narrow, squared, and slightly 

 scalloped. The body is an eighth of an inch in length. 



This ant, one of the most industrious of its tribe, forms 

 its nest in stories rather less than half an inch in height. The 

 partitions are not more than one twenty-fifth of an inch in 

 thickness, and the substance of which they are composed 

 is so finely grained that the surface of the inner walls 

 appears quite smooth and unbroken. These stories are not 

 horizontal; they follow the slope of the ant-hill, so that 



in 



