THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 175 



This is the case with the warrior-ant in the neighborhood 

 of the Cape of Good Hope, which has attracted the atten- 

 tion of every traveller by its extraordinary buildings and 

 the havoc it makes. 



These Termites (Termites bellicosi), or white ants, as 

 they are frequently though wrongly called, 1 live in repub- 

 lics composed of different sorts of individuals: the males, 

 which have wings ; and the workmen, soldiers, and queens, 

 which have none. 



The workmen are occupied solely in constructing build- 



ings. 



The mission of the soldiers is to defend the colony and 

 maintain order. 



Lastly come the females, or queens, worshipped by the 

 whole population, which look to them for the continuance 

 of their race. They are only monstrous egg-sacks ; mere 

 egg-laying machines of the most astonishing fecundity. 

 When their abdomen is swelled to its utmost extent, it is 

 not less than 2000 times its previous size : they can no 

 longer drag it about with them, and henceforth remain 

 chained to one spot. The laying is so rapid that we seem 

 to see a fountain spouting eggs. This receptacle of off- 

 spring projects them at the rate of sixty a minute, or 

 80,000 per diem. 



The dimensions and solidity of the nests of the warrior 

 Termes, compared to the weakness of the insect, have al- 

 ways excited the astonishment of travellers. They are 

 sometimes twenty feet in height. Their pyramidal form 



1 They do not belong to the same order of insects as our ants, which are Hy- 

 menoptera, while the Termites are Neuroptera. Tr. 



