94 ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 



Aristotle, as to the night work of ants. Aristotle held the 

 view, so much challenged later, that ants worked at night 

 during the time of full moon, and this has since been proved 

 to be thoroughly correct. Forel watched a dwelling of the 

 turf-ants, which scarcely left their nest during the whole 

 day through a very hot period in the month of July, and 

 came out in thousands during the evening, swarming over 

 till the roads and visiting the Aphides in the trees. He also 

 found them on a very dark night by means of a lantern, in 

 company with their beloved nurslings on trees and bushes. 

 This activity continued during the whole night and had not 

 decreased by the early morning. Forel repeated this obser- 

 vation with several other species, as well as in his vivarium. 

 When it was very warm, he saw its inhabitants busy the 

 whole night through ; they slept on the contrary in cold 

 weather. In the spring, things are just the opposite ; the ants 

 then, as a rule, leave their nest about eight or nine o'clock 

 in the morning, and return at about five or six. The ants 

 which work in the dark appear to find their way by help of 

 their antennae, while such as have comparatively smaller 

 feelers and more highly-developed eyes (as Polyergux rvfes- 

 cens, F. rufa, etc.) generally prefer day to night. Their 

 movements at night are also slow and measured, while they 

 move rapidly and hastily by day. Mr. McCook noticed his 

 ants at work equally day and night ; frost and cold caused 

 them to fall into a kind of doze, and all work and action 

 stopped. He did not see them come out at all during the 

 winter ; they then remained in the deepest and warmest part 

 of the nest. There is, after all, nothing unusual in the 

 night work of ants, seeing that all that is done within their 

 dwellings goes on in complete darkness. The wall-building 

 ants especially resort to night labor, because their walls do 

 not then dry so rapidly, and thus attain greater firmness ; 

 while the species which do not build prefer the day. In rainy 

 weather or on damp cloudy days, the builders also may be 

 seen at work. But if the little architects are suddenly over- 

 taken by the hot sun during their expeditions, or if their 

 road from being in the shade leads over a place upon which the 

 sun is shining brightly, they then quickly roof it over, or 

 roof the exposed part, with a gallery made of earth and 

 saliva ; or, if circumstances lend themselves to the proceed- 

 ing, they tunnel through the ground, and pass backwards 



