THE WHITE ANT : A THEORY. 



1M 



equaled that manipulated annually in temperate regions by the earth- 

 worm. 



These mounds, however, are more than mere waste-heaps. Like 

 the corresponding region underground they are built into a mesh- work 

 of tunnels, galleries, and chambers, where the social interests of the 

 community are attended to. The most spacious of these chambers, 

 usually far underground, is very properly allocated to the head of the 

 society, the queen. The queen-termite (Fig. 5) is a very rare insect, 



Fig. 5. Thk Queen White Ant. 



and as there are seldom more than one, or at most two, to a colony, 

 and as the royal apartments are hidden far in the earth, few persons 

 have ever seen a queen, and indeed most, if they did happen to come 

 across it, from its very singular appearance would refuse to believe that 

 it had any connection with white ants. It possesses, indeed, the true 

 termite head (Figs. 6, 7), but there the resemblance to the other mem- 

 bers of the family stops, for the size of the head bears about the same 

 proportion to the rest of the body as does the tuft on his Glengarry bon- 

 net to a six-foot Highlander. The phenomenal corpulence of the 

 royal body in the case of the queen-termite is possibly due in part to 

 want of exercise, for once seated upon her throne she never stirs to 

 the end of her days. She lies there, a large, loathsome cylindrical 

 package, two or three inches long, in shape like a sausage, and as 



Fig. 6. Head of Queen 

 (magnified). 



Fig. 7. Undeveloped Winged 

 Female. 



Fig. 8. Eggs. 



white as a bolster. Her one duty in life is to lay eggs (Fig. 8), and 

 it must be confessed she discharges her function with complete suc- 

 cess, for in a single day her progeny often amounts to many thou- 

 sands, and for months this enormous fecundity never slackens. The 

 body increases slowly in size, and through the transparent skin the long- 

 folded ovary may be seen, with the eggs, impelled by a peristaltic mo- 



