Ants and Termites. 



at will, according to circumstances. But however fan- 

 tastical their habitations may appear, we always observe 

 that they have been built in concentric circles. On 

 examining each story separately, we see a number of 

 carefully formed cavities or halls, lodges of narrower 

 dimensions, and long galleries which serve for general 

 communication. The arched ceilings covering the most 

 spacious places are supported either by little columns, 

 slender walls, or regular buttresses. We further notice 

 chambers that have but one entrance, communicating 

 with the lower story, and large open spaces serving 

 as a kind of crossing or junction in which all streets 

 terminate. The ant-hill contains sometimes more than 

 twenty stories in its upper portion, and at least as many 

 under the surface of the ground an arrangement which 

 must enable the ants to regulate the heat to a nicety 

 and with the greatest ease." 



Unlike the Wood Ants, which rejoice in the warm 

 sunlight, these smaller Mason Ants appear to shrink 

 from it, only coming out on to the surface of the nest 

 in the cool of the late afternoon and evening. Hiiber 

 also observed that these ants appeared greatly to appre- 

 ciate a moist condition of the atmosphere, and actually 

 to become actively engaged in building operations out- 

 side the nest during showery weather. " As soon as 

 it began to rain they left their subterranean residence 

 in great numbers, re-entered it almost immediately, and 

 then returned bearing in their jaws pellets of earth, 

 which they deposited on the roof of their nest. At 

 first I could not imagine what this was intended for, but 

 I soon saw little walls start up on all sides with spaces 

 left between them, while in several places columns 



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