20 6 
TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 
about, and the ants, working energetically, will often repair the 
mischief in the course of an hour. Although most of the species 
of ants resemble each other in their habits, instincts, and intelli- 
gence, each one chooses a particular position for its nest, and esta- 
blishes it upon a special plan, which has greater or less reference 
to some peculiar habit. Huber calls those kinds which only use 
earth as the material for their nests, Mason Ants ; there are two 
kinds of them which are common over a great part of Europe, 
the Brown Ant, Formica fusca, and the Mining Ant, Formica 
cunicularia. The neuters or workers of the first species are of a 
blackish brown colour, and their bodies are covered with fine 
black hairs, the antennae and legs being of a reddish tint ; the 
females are of a brilliant black colour, and the males have fawn 
coloured legs, but are otherwise dark. The workers of the 
second species are of an iron-red colour, and the females have 
the same tint, but the males are black. The brown ants, or those 
of the first species, hollow out the soil and make in the interior 
of a great cavity cells, galleries, and more or less spacious avenues, 
all in stories, one over the other, and their nest looks like the dome 
of a vault outside. The mining ant constructs its dwelling very 
much in the same manner, but the roof never appears above the 
level of the soil. These insects work the earth with their 
mandibles, and make pillars, columns, and partitions out of it, 
and do not neglect to fill up cracks, or to level irregularities, and 
in fact they act like very able builders. The mason ants cannot 
work during very dry weather, and they wait patiently, with their 
buildings half finished, for rain, but should some parts of them which 
were built up as the weather became very dry show any signs of 
cracking, the intelligent insects pull them down, and wait for better 
times. Huber gave some mason ants a good watering from the 
rose of a waterpot when they were in this somewhat desperate 
condition, and they set to work immediately, and built up walls 
and cells, and completed a story in a few hours. 
Other ants live in old trunks of trees, and cut and work the 
wood in a wonderful manner. Of these, Formica fuliginosa , which is 
of a brilliant black colour, with pale reddish tarsi, is the most 
common example, and its works almost defy description. It 
builds many stories, which arc almost always horizontal, forms 
