ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 75 



brown garden ant, Lasius niger. These build in stories, 

 but, according to Huber, follow no distinct plan. It rather 

 appears as though nature left them a certain elbow-room, 

 and that they can mould their original plan to suit circum- 

 stances. The larger spaces, or rooms, are always supported 

 by smaller rooms and sometimes by regular arches. Some 

 rooms have only a single entrance or a communication with 

 the chamber beneath ; other very large ones are perforated 

 on all sides, and resemble a centre towards which all roads 

 converge. On opening such a nest, the rooms and large 

 spaces are found filled with adult ants, while the chrysalides 

 or pupre are brought into the rooms nearer the surface 

 according to the time of day and the temperature. For, as 

 Huber remarked, ants are gifted with a very fine sensibility in 

 this respect, and know exactly the degree of warmth which 

 is suitable to their young. The stories being built one over 

 another, it is easy to find each desired modification, while 

 during floods caused by heavy rain the whole community 

 takes flight from the upper to the lower parts of the nest. 

 Huber describes as follows the exact fashion of building : 

 " Each ant carried in its jaws a little ball of earth, which it 

 made while it scraped the floor of the lower stories with the 

 ends of its jaws or mandibles. These balls were again 

 divided by the toothed mandibles and set beside and above 

 each other, and the whole was fastened and lightly pressed 

 together by the forefeet. Each movement was followed by 

 the feelers, each bit of earth tested by them. The whole 

 work went forward very rapidly. After the ground-plan 

 had been sketched, and the foundation of the future pillars 

 and walls marked here and there, the further building 

 followed. Often two little walls, designed to bound a 

 gallery, were observed being built at a little distance from 

 each other. When they had risen to a height of from four 

 to five lines, an arched roof was begun, in order to unite 

 them, by making a projection of damp earth along the upper 

 edge of each wall, and this was increased until each met that 

 of the opposite side. The galleries made in this fashion 

 were often a quarter of an inch wide. 



" Here several perpendicular walls marked the entrance 

 to a room which was designed to communicate with 

 different corridors. There was a shapely saloon, supported 

 by numerous pillars. Further on was recognisable the outline 



