Note 5 — CHAP. I. THE ARCHITECTURE OF ANTS.

Aristotle affirmed, that ants worked in the night, when the moon was at its full; Hist. Anim. l. ix. c. 38. Pliny also alludes to their nocturnal labours. “Operantur et noctu plena lunâ; eadem interlunio cessant.” Gould states that they employ each moment by day and night, almost without intermission, unless hindered by excessive rains; and the author of a Memoir in the Transactions of the French Academy, remarks, that the ants, he observed, were so incessantly occupied during the night, that it seemed as if they never slept!—T.