HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



Another species of ants (F.fusca, L.) are also masons. 

 When they wish to heighten their habitations, they be- 

 gin by covering the top with a thick layer of clay which 

 they transport from the interior. In this layer they trace 

 out the plan of the new story, first hollowing out little 

 cavities of almost equal depth at different distances from 

 each other, and of a size adapted to their purposes. 

 The elevations of earth left between them serve for bases 

 to the interior walls, which, when they have removed all 

 the loose earth from the floors of the apartments, and re- 

 duced the foundations to a due thickness, they heighten, 

 and lastly cover all in. M. Huber saw a single working 

 ant make and cover in a gallery which Avas two or three 

 inches long, and of which the interior was rendered per- 

 fectly concave, without assistance 3 . 



The societies of F. fuligi?iosa, Latr. make their habi- 

 tations in the trunks of old oaks or willow-trees, gnaw- 

 ing the wood into numberless stories more or less hori- 

 zontal, the ceilings and floors of which are about five or 

 six lines asunder, black, and as thin as card, sometimes 

 supported by vertical partitions, forming an infinity of 

 apartments which communicate by small apertures ; at 

 others by small light cylindrical pillars furnished with a 

 base and capital which are arranged in colonnades, leav- 

 ing a communication perfectly free throughout the whole 

 extent of the story b . 



Two other tribes of carpenter ants (F. cethiops and 

 F. Jiava, Latr.) use sawdust in forming their buildings. 

 The former applies this material only to the building of 



" Huber, Recherches, &c 45. b Ibid. 53. 



2 I 2 



