Cavity nests and soil mounds

Abstract

All social insects are able to cut out a chamber in soft wood or soil or the pith of a plant and cover the access hole with a screen. Even species that build elaborate nests often pass through a stage when a single queen or a pair of sexuals makes a shaft and chamber and constricts the entrance. From this simple nest, made originally to provide shelter from weather and enemies and give a useful work surface, vast air-conditioned concentrations of population production have evolved. This has necessitated careful selection of raw materials, the evolution of glandular cements and in a few cases of the building material itself. Parallel with this increase in precision and complexity there has been an increase in co-operativeness during building. Though many quite complex nests, e.g. wasp comb, can be made by a single founder individual, others need group co-operation to give strength or warmth, and the use of various age groups with different contributions to make is the culmination of nest-making evolution and leads to the creation of large, subtly designed, structurally adaptable and independently supported nests.