Nest cedar lumber. When digging the nests, they use the wood shavings scraped from the wall to create partitions within the tunnels. The nests are usually round and have about 1-4 tunnels, each with multiple branches. Because these materials are often useful for humans in construction, "X. virgininica's" nesting behavior presents the disadvantage of weakening wood in manmade structures. The abundance of biological resources within the nest has led to a number of specialized predators. The aardvark and the ant eater use long tongues to prey upon termite and ant nests. Birds such as the honey buzzard specialize on wasp and
Tupolev ANT-8 Tupolev ANT-8 The ANT-8 was an experimental flying boat designed by Tupolev. It was designated the "MDR-2" (MDR meaning "Morskoi Dalnii Razvedchik", or Naval Long-Range Reconnaissance) by the military. Tupolev and the TsAGI were asked to build the ANT-8 in 1925, but other projects were deemed more important. Thus, little was completed on the ANT-8. Finally, in 1930, with Ivan Pogosski leading, actual work was started on the aircraft. Its first flight was on January 30, 1931, piloted by S. Riballschuk. It is important to note that shortly after the ANT-8 flew for the first time, the ANT-14 lifted off