THE ANTS. 379 



The general habits of the species may lie succinctly described as follows. The nests are almost 

 always chambered cavities, hollowed oat either in the ground, in walls and similar situations, or 

 in dead and decaying wood. A distinguished Swiss naturalist, M. Forel, has classified the 

 different kinds of nests made by the Ants of Switzerland, and his observations will generally apply 

 equally to those of other countries. He describes the following categories : 1. Ground nests, 

 consisting either of galleries burrowed in the earth, sometimes exposed, sometimes protected by 

 being made under a stone, or of similar galleries and chambers, surmounted by a chambered hill, 

 built up of the materials removed from the subterranean dwelling. One of the commonest examples 

 of this series is the common GARDEN ANT (Formica nigra), which may be found everywhere in 

 gardens, making its nest in the ground, but often taking advantage of an inverted flower-pot to throw 

 up under cover a mass of fine mould, traversed by chambers and galleries in all directions. Another 

 is the pretty little TURF ANT (Formica flava), which generally haunts commons and heaths, casting up 

 small hills, which serve to throw oft' the rain, and this species in some localities makes its nest under 

 stones. 2. Wood nests, consisting of chambers and galleries hollowed out by the insects in the 

 substance of trees, posts, &c. The course followed by the Ants in the excavation of their dwellings 

 in wood seems to be governed, to a certain extent, by the direction of the fibres of the wood. The 

 WOOD ANT (Formica ligniperda) practises this method of architecture. Some minute Ants, forming 

 the genus Leptothorax, bore into the bark of trees, and there make their nests, consisting of a few 

 chambers. 3. Paper nests, of which the only Swiss examples are those of the "JET ANT (Formica, 

 fidiginosa), a well-known British species, which is provided with greatly-developed salivary glands, 

 secreting a very tenacious fluid, by means of which the Ants produce a sort of cardboard from 

 masticated wood-dust, and use this in the fabrication of their dwellings. Their nests are usually 

 situated in stumps of trees. 4. Composite nests, of which those of the WOOD ANT (Formica nefa), 

 so common in our woods and forests, may serve as an example. The nests of these insects, as is well 

 known, consist of a great heap of small fragments of sticks and other vegetable substances most 

 artificially put together so as to form the necessary galleries and chambers for the economy of the 

 community. M. Forel also refers to this class, the nests made in rotten tree-stumps, in which the 

 extremely decayed wood is used in the same way as the earth by other species for the construction 

 of their dwellings. 5. Divers nests, or those which cannot be brought under any of the preceding 

 definitions, such as the dwellings formed by Ants in the fissures of walls and rocks, in houses, <fec. 



The size of the nest depends upon that of the community to be sheltered by it, and in the larger 

 ones the complication of passages and chambers in several storeys becomes very great. Certain passages 

 lead directly to the surface of the nest, where there are openings permitting the egress and ingress of 

 the inhabitants, but these are in general carefully closed at the approach of night. Besides these simple 

 doorways, many species make passages leading out of the nest, sometimes to a considerable distance, 

 which serve as covered ways for the Ants in going to and from their favourite feeding grounds. 



Although the communities of Ants are permanent, the males of course are only to be found 

 in the nests for a certain time, but in the case of some species this period seems to be much 

 longer than in the Social Bees and Wasps. In many instances the females also disappear after 

 depositing the last batch of eggs of the autumn season, and thus the nest in the spring contains only 

 workers with larvae and pupa?. The larvae of this last brood are carried down by the workers into- 

 the deepest recesses of the nest, where they pass the winter in a state of torpidity. In the majority 

 of species, however, the females appear to survive from season to season, but it is not believed that 

 they live more than one year. The eggs and larvae are carefully attended to by the workers, the 

 latter being fed by them, and both being carried from one part of the nest to another, so as to be 

 placed always in the most favourable conditions for their development, or conveyed into the penetralia 

 of the nest should any danger threaten the community. Later on the larvae become converted into 

 pupae, many of them first enclosing themselves in a small silken cocoon.* The pupae are still the 



* The group of the Myrmicinae, characterised by having two knots or scales in the petiole of the abdomen, includes 

 species which usually spin no cocoons. In the rest of the family (Formicinse), although the formation of the cocoon is the 

 rule, it is liable to many exceptions, and, indeed, pupae with and without cocoons are said to occur in the same nest. The 

 pupae in cocoons are the objects commonly known as "Ants' eggs," and sold under that name as food for the soft-billed 

 singing birds. 



