ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 



are also voluntary changes made tolerably frequently, partly 

 for still unknown reasons ; but these changes do not take 

 place without previous mutual consultation and understand- 

 ing. Lespes has the following on such an occurrence : 



" Ants sometimes change their dwellings because they are 

 too much in the shade, or are too damp, or from some other 

 unknown reason. One ant may then be seen approaching 

 another, and holding a consultation with it, conferring by 

 means of continual light touches on its head with its feelers. 

 The latter then places its feet together, and awaits events. 

 Its sister then seizes it in its jaws, and carries it to the place 

 where it proposes to form the new building. After some 

 time the twain return, and cariy other comrades in the same 

 way, until at last the larvae and pupae are picked up and trans- 

 ported to the new place." Some species, continues Lespes, 

 appear to possess a richer language ; for they are able to 

 impart to each other the project of a change of dwelling, 

 without, as generally happens, carrying their comrades to 

 the new abode. For the rest, a fuller account of their 

 language and of the very decided ability of the ants to com- 

 municate with each other will be given later. 



Complicated and diverse as are the styles of building of 

 European ants, they yet seem to be far surpassed herein by 

 their sisters in tropical lands, which are far more numerous 

 and larger both as to species and individuals, although, unfortu- 

 nately, we have little exact and trustworthy knowledge of them. 

 Many South American plains are, according to Lund, rendered 

 quite uneven by countless ant-hills, which often have a circum- 

 ference of from thirty to forty feet above ground, and of two 

 hundred feet below. Stockes found ant-hills in North-West 

 Australia of pyramidal shape, of a height of thirteen feet, 

 which were so firm and broad that a man could stand on 

 them without breaking through. The buildings of Myrmica 

 Texana (Texas) are, according to Buckley, a hundred feet 

 long, and single large rooms stretch underground from ten 

 to eighteen feet ; the earth thrown out from within looks 

 like a regular crater. Far from the nest proper, the outlets 

 open from long subterranean tunnels, through which the 

 workers bring grain, leaves, and fruits to their underground 

 city. The Isan in Paraguay, apparently one of the Atta, 

 builds nests of clay, according to Rengger, which are twenty 

 feet in diameter, and many feet high, and which spread far 



