TERMITES, THE DESTROYERS 73 



broad flat stone to sand and gravel on the other 

 side. 



When roads or nests are broken open, you 

 may see many small termites with brown heads. 

 From the middle of their foreheads sticks out a 

 single hollow horn that makes a most excellent 

 squirt gun (Fig. 33). I took some termites in 

 my hand, and soon the whole hand was covered 

 with a clear, sticky liquid like cedar oil, which I 

 found hard to wash off. These are the termite 

 soldiers, whose duty it is to protect the colony, 

 and their sticky weapons are very useful against 

 most of their enemies. Other termite soldiers 

 are armed like the ant soldiers with large biting 

 jaws. 



The termite workers are a little larger than the 

 soldiers. They do not have squirt guns, and their 

 jaws, though very strong, are not overlarge. It 

 is their business to build nests and runways and 

 bring in food. 



Deep in the center of the nest are rooms called 

 ''queen chambers," and in each of them live from 

 one to ten queens. The queens are much larger 

 than the tiny workers and soldiers. Their bodies 

 are often more than an inch long, six times the 

 length of a worker. The queens' chief occupa- 

 tion is to lay the eggs that will hatch out into new 

 termites to carry on the business of the nest. 



"Kings" are usually found in the queens' 

 chambers, too. They are larger than the workers, 



