CARPENTER-ANTS. 281 



Portion of a tree, with chambers find galleries chiselled out by Jet-Ants. 



numerous partitions are still found. If the work be 

 less regular, it becomes more delicate ; for the ants, 

 profiting by the hardness and solidity of the mate- 

 rials, give to their building an extreme degree of 

 lightness. I have seen fragments of from eight to 

 ten inches in length, and of equal height, formed of 

 wood as thin as paper, containing a number of apart- 

 ments, and presenting a most singular appearance. 

 At the entrance of these apartments, worked out 

 with so much care, are very considerable openings ; 

 but in place of chambers and extensive galleries, the 

 layers of the wood are hewn in arcades, allowing the 

 ants a free passage in every direction. These may 

 be regarded as the gates or vestibules conducting to 

 the several lodges."* 



It is a singular circumstance in the structures of 

 these ants, that all the wood which they carve is 

 tinged of a black colour, as if it were smoked ; and M. 

 Huber was not a little solicitous to discover whence 

 this arose. It certainly does not add to the beauty 



* Hubert p. 56. 



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