MASON-AXTS. 255 



shall chiefly confine ourselves to the ants of these 

 islands. We shall begin with the labours of 

 those native ants which may be called earth-masons, 

 from their digging in the ground, and forming struc- 

 tures with pellets of moistened loam, clay, or sand, 



Masox-Axts, 



We have used in the preceding pages, the terms 

 mason-hees and mason-ivusps, for insects which build 

 their nests of earthly materials. On the same prin- 

 ciple, we have followed the ingenious M. Huber the 

 younger, in employing the term mason-ants for those 

 whose nests on the exterior appear to be hillocks of 

 earth, without the admixture of other materials, 

 whilst in the interior they present a series of laby- 

 rinths, lodges, vaults, and galleries, constructed witli 

 considerable skill. Of these mason-ants, as of the 

 mason-wasps and bees already described, there are 

 several species, differing from one another in their 

 skill in the art of architecture. 



One of the most common of the ant-masons is 

 the turf-ant [Formica ciBspitum, Latu.), which is of 

 a blackish brown colour. Its architecture is not upon 

 quite so extensive a scale as some of the others-, 

 but, though slight, it is very ingenious. Sometimes 

 they make choice of the shelter of a flat stone or 

 other covering, beneath which they hollow out cham- 

 bers and communicating galleries; at other times 

 they are contented with t!ie open ground; but most 

 commonly they select a tuft of grass or other herbage, 

 the stems of which serve for columns to their earthen 

 walls. 



We had a small colony of these ants accidentally 

 established in a flower-pot, in which we were rearing 

 some young plants of the tiger-lily {Lilium {lo-rimnn), 

 the stems of which being stronger than the grass 

 where they usually build, enabled them to re^r their 



