TERMES. 
429 
posely for the inhabitants to travel over with more 
safety, or else, which is not improbable, worn so 
by frequent treading. 
“ I' have observed before, that there are of 
every species of Termites three orders; of these 
orders the working insects or labourers are alwa\''s 
the most numerous; in the Termes hellicosus there 
seems to be at the least one hundred labourers to 
one of the fighting insects or soldiers. They are 
in this state about one-fourth of an inch long, and 
twenty-five of them weigh about a grain; so that 
they are not so large as some of our ants. From 
their external habit and fondness for wood, they 
have been very expressively called Wood Lice by 
some people, and the whole genus has been known 
by that name, particularly among the French. 
They resemble them, it is true, very much at a 
distance, but they run as fast or faster than any 
other insects of their size, and are incessantly 
bustling about their affairs. 
‘‘ Tlie second order, or soldiers, have a very 
different form from the labourers, and have been 
by some authors supposed to be the males, and 
the former neuters; but they are, in fact, the same 
insects as tlie foregoing, only they have under- 
gone a change of form, and approached one de- 
gree nearer to the perfect state. They are now 
much larger, being lialf an inch long, and ecpial 
in bulk to fifteen of the labourers. 
“ There is now likewise a most remarkable cir- 
cumstance in the form of the head and mouth; 
for in the former state the mouth is evidently cal- 
