HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



409 



furnished with a base and capital which are arranged in colon- 

 nades, leaving a communication perfectly free throughout the 

 whole extent of the story. ^ 



Two other tribes of carpenter ants (i^ (Ethiops and F.flava) 

 use saw-dust in forming their buildings. The former applies 

 this material only to the building of walls and stopping up 

 chinks : the latter composes Avhole stages or stories of it made 

 into a sort of papier mache with earth and spiders' web.^ 



Some ants form their nests of the leaves of trees. One of 

 these was observed by Sir Joseph Banks in IN^ew South 

 Wales, which was formed by glueing together several leaves 

 as large as a hand. To keep these leaves in a proper position, 

 thousands of ants united their strength, and if driven away 

 the leaves spring back with great violence.'^ Another species 

 of ant (Myrmica Kirbii Sykes), found in the Poona Col- 

 lectorate, India, described by Colonel Sykes, forms its globular 

 battoon-shaped nest, which is composed of a congeries of tile- 

 like laminae of cow-dung, with the usual assemblage of cells 

 and nurseries, &c., composed of the same material, in the 

 branches of trees and shrubs.'* Another East Indian species 

 (^Formica smaragdina) forms its nest of a very thin but 

 doubled silk-like tissue ^ ; while Formica elata Lund builds 

 its nest on the trunks of trees of earth mixed with leaves, 

 and other species use the hairs of plants for the same purpose.^ 

 F. bispinosa in Cayenne employs the down enveloping the 

 seeds of the Bomhax criha, which it felts into a sort of cottony 

 substance. 7 



The most profound philosopher, equally with the most in- 

 curious of mortals, is struck with astonishment on inspecting 

 the interior of a bee-hive. He beholds a city in miniature. 

 He sees this city divided into regular streets, these streets 

 composed of houses constructed on the most exact geo- 

 metrical principles and the most symmetrical plan, some 



1 Huber, Recherckes, Sec. 53. 



3 Hawkesworth's Cook's Voijages, iii. 223. 



4 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. 101. 



6 Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. ii. 223. 



7 Lacordaire, Intr. a VEntotn. ii. 503. 



2 Ibid. 61. 



^ Ibid. i. proc. Ixxii. 



