1 6 Ants. 



III. 



1. The nests of ants may be divided into several 

 classes. Some species, our common Horse Ant for 

 instance, collect large quantities of materials, such 

 as bits of stick, fir leaves, &c., which they heap up 

 into conical masses. Some construct their nests of 

 earth, the cells being partly above, partly below, 

 the natural level. Some are entirely underground, 

 others eat into the trunks of old trees. 



In some cases the nests are very extensive. 

 Bates mentions that while he was at Para an attempt 

 was made to destroy a nest of the Sauba Ants by 

 blowing into it the fumes of sulphur, and he saw 

 the smoke issue from a great number of holes, some 

 of them not less than 70 yards apart. 



2. A community of ants must not be confused 

 with an ant hill in the ordinary sense. Very often, 

 indeed, a community has only one dwelling, and in 

 most species seldom more than three or four. 

 Some, however, form numerous colonies. M. Forel 

 even found a case in which one community had no 

 less than 200 colonies, and occupied a circular 

 space with a radius of nearly 200 yards. Within 

 this area they had destroyed almost all the other 

 ants. In these cases the number of ants thus asso- 

 ciated together must have been enormous. Even 



