CHAPTER XXVII 



THE MAKING OF A FORMICAEIUM 



MANY species of ants may be kept without difficulty in captivity. 

 Nests can occasionally be bought from dealers,* but it is always 

 better and much cheaper to make one for oneself. The common 

 yellow ant is a suitable species to begin with. The whole nest should 

 be dug up, and the ants and earth all brought home. 



A simple way of making a formicarium t is to get a large photo- 

 graphic printing frame and a tin baking dish into which it will 

 easily fit. In the former are placed two sheets of glass cut exactly 

 to fit it, and kept a quarter of an inch apart by little strips of wood 

 which neatly join at the corners of the frame. Between the sheets of 

 glass are to come the ants and the finely divided soil from their nest. 



Legs are attached to the frame, or this is laid on a little stand in 

 the dish, so that it is well above the water with which the latter is to 

 be half filled. Finally an opening is made through the frame into 

 the nest at one end, so as to communicate with a little ladder reach- 

 ing to the water, down which the ants can go to drink. The back of 

 the printing frame is replaced when observations are over, and held 

 in position by the springs provided for the purpose. 



The yellow meadow ant is a species which Lord Avebury compared 



* See Appendix. 



t The method described is employed at the Stepney Borough Museum by Miss Kate 

 Hall. 



