Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1894 — Nest of a Tree Ant. [ARTICLE]

Nest of a Tree Ant.

The nests of an extraordinary tree ant are cunningly wrought with leaves, united together with web. One was observed in New South Wales in the expedition under Capt. Cook. The leaves utilized were as broad as one’s hand, and were bent and glued to each other at their tips. How the insects manage to bring the leaves into the required position was never ascertained, but thousands were seen uniting their. strength to hold them down, while other busy multitudes were employed within in applying the gluten that was to prevent them returning back. The observers, to satisfy themselves that the foliage was indeed incurvated and held in this form by the efforts of the ants, disturbed the builders at their work, and as soon as they were drjven away the leaves sprang up with a force much greater than it would have been deemed possible for such laborers to overcome by any combination of strength. The more compact and elegant dwelling (E. virescens is made of leaves, cut and masticated until they become a coarse pulp. Its diameter is about six inches; it is suspended among thickest foliage, and sustained not only by the branches on which it hangs but by the leaves, which are worked into the composition and in many parts project from its outer wall.—[Popular Science Monthly. The number of possible voters in 1890 was 27.05 per cent, of the population. \