TERMES. 
436 
be four or five feet distant in a straight line, and. 
consequently much farther by their winding gal- 
leries. Here, after they are hatched, the young 
are attended and provided with every thing ne- 
cessary until they are able to shift for themselves, 
and take their share of the labours of the com- 
munity. The foregoing, I flatter myself, is an 
accurate description and account of the Termes 
hellicosus or species that builds the large nests in 
its different states. 
“ The Termites, except their heads, are exceeding 
soft, and covered with a very thin and delicate 
skin ; being blind, they are no match on open 
ground for the ants, who can see, and are all of 
them covered with a strong horny shell not easily 
pierced, and are of dispositions bold, active, and 
rapacious. Whenever the Termites are dislodged 
from their covered ways, the various species of 
the former, who probably are as numerous above 
ground as the latter are in their subterraneous 
passages, instantly seize and drag them away to 
their nests, to feed the young brood. The Ter- 
mites are therefore exceeding solicitous about the 
preserving their covered ways in good repair ; and 
if you demolish one of them, for a few inches in 
length, it is wonderful how soon they rebuild it. 
At first in their hurry they get into the open part 
an inch or two, but stop so suddenly that it is 
very apparent they are surprized : for though 
some run straight on, and get under the arch as 
speedily as possible in the former part, most of 
them run as fast back, and very few will venture 
