CARPENTE!;-ANTS. 



Portion of a tree, with chumhcrs mid galleries chiselled out hy Jet-Ants. 



numerous partitions are still found. If the work be 

 less regular, it becomes more delicate; for the ants, 

 profiting by the hardness and solidity of the mate- 

 rials give to their building an extreme degree of 

 lightness. I have seen fragments of from eight to 

 ten inches in length, and of equal height, formed of 

 wood as thin as paper, containing a number of apart- 

 ments, and presenting the most singular appearance. 

 At the entrance of these apartments, worked out 

 with so much care, are very considerable openinas; 

 but in place of chambers and extensive galleries, the 

 layers of the wood are hewn in arcades, allowing the 

 ants a free passage in every direction. These may 

 be regarded as the gates or vestibules conducting to 

 the several lodges."* 



It is a singular circumstance in the structures of 

 these ants, that all the wood which they carve is 

 tinged of a black colour as if it were smoked ; and JVT. 

 Huber was not a little solicitous to discover whence 

 this arose. It certainly does not add to the beauty 



* Huber, p. 56. 



VOL. IV. 24* 



