No. 414.] NESTS OF AMERICAN ANTS. 443 
politely requested to leave. The Leptothorax then at once set 
to work to repair their dilapidated wall. At 1.30 a worker 
went out into the adjoining gallery, picked up a pellet of earth 
and placed it in the breach. Again and again she returned and 
gathered earth, often going to a distance of one or two inches 
from the chamber for suitable pellets. Another worker soon 
began to assist in repairing the breach from the inside, tak- 
ing the pellets for this purpose from the inner wall of the 
chamber. Then the first worker walked around the nest, 
entered it through the passageway at x and began to clean 
herself, while a third worker went out through the breach 
and continued the work on the outside till the wall was 
completed. This was accomplished by 3 P.M. 
At 4 P.M. a little water was poured under a corner of the glass 
where the Myrmicas had congregated in greatest numbers. 
This additional moisture induced them to move mit Kind und 
Kegel to the middle of the nest. Here they soon began to 
break through the walls of the Leptothorax cell in two places 
(Fig. 6 ss). Two Myrmicas again settled down in the cell 
and underwent the usual shampooing. As soon as they had 
departed the little ants again set about repairing the walls as 
before. Sometimes three or four of them worked at the same 
breach. During the progress of the work they frequently went 
from two to three inches into the Myrmica galleries in search 
of the requisite earth. At the same time a few workers toiled 
from the inside of the cell, and these were soon joined by the 
queen, working as busily as any of her progeny.! Occasionally 
à worker, after building for some time on the outside, would 
slip through the breach, turn around and build from the inside. 
Twice Myrmicas rushed up to the spot s (on the right side in 
Fig. 6) and commenced tearing down the wall They easily 
took out pieces of earth eight or ten times as large as those 
Which the little Leptothorax workers were putting in with so 
much care and difficulty. But the infraction of the Myrmicas 
did not escape the attention of the Leptothorax. They 
1 It is interesting to note in this connection that Forel ('74, pp. 339-341) wes 
ago observed that the queens of the European species of 
"um and tubero-affinis) do not shirk their share of the menial labors of the nest. 
