MASON-ANTS. 255 



fine ourselves to the ants of these islands. We shall 

 begin with the labours of those native ants which 

 may be called earth-masons, from their digging in 

 the ground and forming structures with pellets of 

 moistened loam, clay, or sand. 



Mason-Ants. 

 We have used, in the preceding pages, the terms 

 mason-bees and mason-wasps, for insects which build 

 their nests of earthy materials. On the same prin- 

 ciple, we have followed the ingenious M. Huber the 

 younger, in employing the term mason-ants for those 

 whose nests on the exterior appear to be hillocks of 

 earth, without the admixture of other materials, 

 whilst in the interior they present a series of laby- 

 rinths, lodges, vaults, and galleries, constructed with 

 considerable skill. Of these mason-ante, as of the 

 mason-wasps and bees already described, there are 

 several species, differing from one another in their 

 skill in the art of Architecture. 



One of the most common of the ant-masons is the 

 turf-ant (Formica caspilum, Latk.), which is very 

 small, and of a blackish brown colour. Its architec- 

 ture is not upon quite so extensive a scale as some of 

 the others ; but, though slight, it is very ingenious. 

 Sometimes they make choice of the shelter of a flat 

 stone or other covering, beneath which they hollow 

 out chambers and communicating galleries ; at other 

 times they are contented with the open ground ; but 

 most commonly they select a tuft of grass or other 

 herbage, the stems of which serve for columns to 

 their earthen walls. 



We had a small colony of these ants accidentally 

 established in a flower-pot, in which we were rearing 

 some young plants of the tiger-lily (Lilium tiqrinum), 

 the stems of which being stronger than the grass 

 where they usually build, enabled them to rear their 



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