$52 ON THE PHYSICAL POWER OF INSECTS. 



part of the summer of 1832, the Pines failed to put out their usual fresh shoots, 

 and presently their branches were seen every where dying. Specimens of the dis- 

 eased trees were forwarded to various professors throughout Germany, with urgent 

 letters requesting them to use their best endeavours to explain the cause of the 

 injury, and to suggest any remedy for its prevention. After some time it was 

 found that the evil arose from an insect, scarcely visible to the naked eye, being 

 imbedded at the root of each leaf. It will be remembered that the leaves of the 

 Pine are small and very numerous ; consequently the number of these insects 

 requisiteto produce the decay of a branch or a tree may be imagined. Where 

 they came from, or how they could be removed, were questions for which no one 

 offered any solution. 



The physical power of insects as labourers, employing the term in its fullest 

 sense, may be said to be one of the most destructive living agents in the present 

 era of our planet. Sir Humphrey Davy, in alluding to the physical power of 

 insects, has said, " The most insignificant creatures triumph as it were over the 

 grandest works of man." Also, " As the Worm devours the lineaments of his 

 mortal beauty, so the most humble and insignificant insects shall undermine and 

 sap the foundations of his colossal works, and make their habitations among the 

 ruins of his palaces, and the falling seats of his earthly glory." 



Insects thus serve an important part in the third step for fulfilling the gradually 

 progressive adaptation of the materials of our world for sustaining a more luxu- 

 riant vegetation and a greater amount of animal life. 



The co-operative power of Ants, as labourers, enables them to perform works 

 of a magnitude surpassed only in the lower departments of the animal kingdor 

 by the coral animalcule. 



The habitations reared by the White Ants (Termes bellicosus) of tropical 

 countries have been by some naturalists compared with the Colossal Pyramids of 

 Egypt, to shew that the works of this insect bear a greater ratio to its size than 

 the most lofty works of man do to his magnitude. So far as dimensions go the 

 comparison will hold good, but when durability — -which cannot be fairly excluded 

 from such an estimate — is taken into consideration, the labours of the White Ants 

 sink into comparative insignificence. 



Bishop Heber, in his travels in Hindostan, describes Ant-hills five or six feet 

 high, and seven or eight feet in circumference. Other travellers mention them as 

 high as twenty feet. Thus, these erections appear to exceed in size those of any 

 other of the higher members of the animal kingdom. 



The White Ants are omnivorous, but seem chiefly to direct their ravages 

 against dead vegetable matter. They employ their power not only in rearing 

 their huge encampments, but also in making covert ways in every direction 

 leading to the objects for their attacks ; and so assiduous are they in their labours 



