WHITE ANTS, 



By CHABLES HOENE, EE.Z.S., late B.C.S. 



HE nests of the 

 Termites, or White 

 Ants, are very com- 

 mon in India; but 

 although so com- 

 mon, there is not 

 one person in a 

 thousand who has 

 seen the internal 

 economy of one of 

 these wonderful abodes. I had 

 often wished to do so, and al- 

 though I had resided very many 

 years in the country, during 

 most of which I had studied 

 natural history and collected 

 specimens, it was not until 

 twenty years or more had passed 

 that I had an opportunity. 



This was at Etawah, N.-W. 

 Provinces, in 1867, and the 

 result was so curious and in- 

 teresting that I think it worth 

 recording in Science-Gossip, 

 whose pages are devoted to such topics. 



I had offered a reward for a queen white ant, 

 and at the same time I determined to dig for one 

 myself ; not that the natives were not well aware of 

 the locality of her abode, but that they would not 

 take the trouble to dig her out. I had observed 

 several mounds formed by these insects near the 

 gate of the court-house, and one morning, taking 

 with me three men, I dug up the hard-baked soil 

 in their midst. There were five of these conical 

 elevations, the highest being the central. This was 

 about a foot and a half above the level of the 

 plain, whilst the four smaller ones, which were 

 placed at the corners of a square of perhaps five 

 feet, in the midst of which stood the chief one, or 

 citadel, were each perhaps eight inches in height. 



It was on the 22nd of November, so that there 

 had not been any rain for some months, and the 

 No. 73. 



grass was all dried up, and the earth extremely 

 hard. I first cut off the heads of each of the 

 mounds to ascertain the direction of the chief gal- 

 leries, as well as to see which was the residence of 

 royalty, and where the nurseries might be placed. 



Within each eminence were large domed cham- 

 bers supported on massive pillars composed of the 

 finest sand, all of which had passed through the 

 bodies of the workers ere it had been incorporated 

 into the compact substance of which the sand pillar 

 was constructed. There were also flying bridges, 

 with footpaths on them trodden smooth and polished 

 by the passage of the millions of feet of these blind 

 insects, into whose habitations light never enters. 

 All paths tended towards the centre, although by 

 digging I came on several granaries and sets of 

 nursery-cells. These granaries are very curious 

 structures, being as slightly constructed and friable 

 as the general structure is solid, story upon story 

 of cells supported by frequent walls and pillars, all 

 of which would crumble in the hand. 



The former are placed in hollow spaces excavated 

 for the purpose, each about the size of a child's 

 head, and contain some kind of food, supposed by- 

 many to be inspissated juices of the roots of trees, 

 and resembling in appearance little globules of 

 brown gum. There are perhaps three or four such 

 granaries attached to every nest. The nurseries 

 resemble the granaries in a great measure. In 

 them grows a minute white fungus, much resembling 

 a button mushroom, and about the size of a small 

 pin's-head. This was formerly taken for food by 

 many observers ; but I do not think that it is so. 

 It, however, abounds to such an extent that it 

 causes the floor of the cells to assume a grey appear- 

 ance, the colour of the earth being of a light brown. 

 In these nurseries, which are in general about the 

 same size as the granaries, may be observed the 

 working ants and nurses carrying about and feeding 

 from their own mouths the larvae in various stages. 

 These larvae are at first very small, but they are 

 cared for immediately they are hatched from the 



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