S60 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



their little ones to the bottom of the ant-hill. The 

 ground-floor becoming, in its turn, uninhabitable 

 during the rainy season, the ants of this species 

 transport what most interests them to the higher 

 stories ; and it is there we find them more usually 

 assembled, with their eggs and pupae, when the sub- 

 terranean apartments are submerged."* 



Ants have a great dislike to water when it exceeds 

 that of a light shower to moisten their building ma- 

 terials. One species, mentioned by De Azara as in- 

 digenous to South America, instinctively builds a 

 nest from three to six feet high,| to provide against 

 the inundations during the rainy season. Even this, 

 however, does not always save them from submer- 

 sion; and when that occurs, they are compelled, 

 in order to prevent themselves from being swept 

 away, to form a group, somewhat similar to the cur- 

 tain of the wax-workers of hive-bees (see page 114). 

 The ants constituting the basis of this group, lay 

 hold of some shrub for security, while their compa- 

 nions hold on by them; and thus the whole colony, 

 forming an animated raft, floats on the surface of the 

 water till the inundation (which seldom continues 

 longer than a day or two) subsides. 



It is usual with architectural insects to employ 

 some animal secretion, by way of mortar or size, to 

 temper the materials with which they work; but the 

 whole economy of ants is so different, that it would 

 be wrong to infer from analogy a similarity in this 

 respect, though the exquisite polish and extreme de- 

 licacy of finish in their structures, lead, naturally, to 

 such a conclusion. M. P. Huber, in order to resolve 

 this question, at first thought of subjecting the ma- 

 terials of the walls to chemical analysis, but wisely 

 (as we think) abandoned it for the surer method of 

 observation. The details which he has given, as the 



* M. P. Huber on Ants, page 20. 

 t Stedman'a Surinam, vol. i. p. 160. 



