340 Insects and their Surroundings 



each other's excrement again and again, as well as 

 food disgorged from the crop, and the spittle of their 

 comrades. When no more nourishment can be got 

 from the waste matter they build it into the wall of 

 their tunnels. They habitually shun the light and 

 open air, making earthen galleries to cover their 

 march across country or their ascent of tree-trunks 

 and wooden buildings. Some of the tropical species 

 raise earthen hill-nests twenty feet high, containing 

 numerous chambers. A termite colony often numbers 

 thousands of individuals, but though the rate. of egg 

 production is great, growth proceeds very slowly, 

 and a heavy mortality prevails among them, especially 

 among the mature, winged insects which leave the 

 nests in swarms and mostly fall victims to birds 

 (3, 113). It is remarkable that social life among 

 insects should have arisen in orders so far apart in 

 the scale as the Platyptera and the Hymenoptera. 



Insect ** Royalties." — The use of the terms 

 " king " and " queen " for the fertile male and 

 female members of insect communities has led to 

 the erroneous idea that the government of these 

 communities is monarchial. As a matter of fact 

 it is republican. The queen bee or termite is 

 indeed carefully tended and guarded by the workers, 

 but her actions are, at the same time, restricted by 

 them, and the management of the colony is alto- 

 gether under their control. No single individual 

 in authority directs the operations of the myriad 

 inhabitants of a nest, yet each works for the good 

 of the whole community. 



Insects in relation to Man. — Our survey of 

 insects in relation to their surroundings may fitly 

 conclude with a few words on their importance to 

 mankind. The ravages to crops and fruit-trees 

 caused by plant-feeding insects are often very great 5 



