252 APPENDIX. 



letting go its load. Tiie weight thus carried was found, on 

 an average, to be twice that of the ant; but many were 

 found carrying heavier loads, even as much as ten times 

 their own weight ! 



The nests are usually below the surface of the soil, but 

 covered, wherever necessary, with a thick mass of withered 

 pieces of leaves and twigs, etc. They may be as much as 

 I y^ metres in diameter. In the nests of all species examined 

 there is found, filling up the interior, a curious grey spongy 

 mass, full of chambers, like a coarse sponge, in which the 

 ants may be seen running about, and in which, here and 

 there, occur eggs, larvae, and pupae. This is the fungus 

 garden. It is separated from the roof and lateral walls of 

 the nest by a clear space. The walls and roof are much 

 thicker in winter than in summer ; one nest examined had 

 a roof 25 cm. thick and wall 40 cm. The garden consists 

 of two parts, differently coloured, but not very sharply 

 marked off from each other. The older part is yellowish- 

 red in colour; the newly-built portions, forming the surface 

 of the garden, are of a blue-black colour. It is this part 

 which is of the greater importance to the ants. 



The garden is found, on examination, to consist of an 

 immense conglomeration of small round particles of not 

 more than .5 mm. in diameter, of a dark green colour when 

 quite fresh, then blue-black, and finally yellowish-red. 

 They are penetrated by, and enveloped in, white fungus 

 hyphae, which hold the particles together. These hypha; 

 are similar throughout the nest. 



Strewn thickly upon the surface of the garden are seen 

 round white bodies about .25 mm. in diameter; they 

 always occur in the nests, except in the very young portion 

 of the gardens. They consist of aggregations of peculiar 

 swollen hyphae, and are termed by MoUer the " Kohl-rabi 

 clumps." The hyph» swell out at the ends into large 

 spherical thickenings, filled with richly vacuolated proto- 

 plasm like the ordinary hyphas. These clumps of " Kohl- 



