PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 347 



find, be the peril or emergency ever so great, that one order attempts to 

 fight, or the other to work. 



You have seen how soHcitous the Termites are to move and work under 

 cover and concealed from observation ; this, however, is not always the 

 case ; — there is a species larger than T. hellicossus, whose proceedings I 

 have been principally describing, which Mr. Smeathman calls the marching 

 Termes {Termes viarum). He was once passing through a thick forest, 

 when on a sudden a loud hiss, like that of serpents, struck him with alarm. 

 The next step produced a repetition of the sound, which he then recog- 

 nized to be that of white ants ; yet he was surprised at seeing none of 

 their hills or covered ways. Following the noise, to his great astonishment 

 and delight he saw an army of these creatures emerging from a hole in the 

 ground ; their number was prodigious, and they marched with the utmost 

 celerity. When they had proceeded about a yard they divided into two 

 columns, chiefly composed of laborers, about fifteen abreast, following each 

 other in close order, and going straight forward. Here and there was seen 

 a soldier, carrying his vast head with apparent difficulty, and looking like 

 an ox in a flock of sheep, who marched on in the same manner. At the 

 distance of a foot or two from the columns many other soldiers were to be 

 seen, standing still or pacing about as if upon the look-out, lest some enemy 

 should suddenly surprise their unwarlike comrades ; — other soldiers, which 

 was the most extraordinary and amusing part of the scene, having mounted 

 some plants and placed themselves on the points of their leaves, elevated 

 from ten to fifteen inches from the ground, hung over the army marching 

 below, and by striking their forceps upon the leaf, produced at intervals 

 the noise before mentioned. To this signal the whole army returned a 

 hiss, and obeyed it by increasing their pace. The soldiers at these signal 

 stations sat quite still during the intervals of silence, except now and then 

 making a slight turn of the head, and seemed as solicitous to keep their 

 posts as regular sentinels. The two columns of this army united after 

 continuing separate for twelve or fifteen paces, having in no part been 

 above three yards asunder, and then descended into the earth by two or 

 three holes. Mr. Smeathman continued watching them for above an hour, 

 during which time their numbers appeared neither to increase nor dimin- 

 ish : — the soldiers, however, who quitted the line of march and acted as 

 sentinels, became much more numerous before he quitted the spot. The 

 larvae and neuters of this species are furnished with eyes. 



The societies of Termes lucifugus, discovered by Latreille at Bour- 

 deaux, are very numerous ; but instead of erecting artificial nests, they 

 make their lodgment in the trunks of pines and oaks, where the branches 

 diverge from the tree. They eat the wood the nearest the bark, or the 

 alburnum, without attacking the interior, and bore a vast number of holes 

 and irregular galleries. That part of the wood appears moist, and is 

 covered with little gelatinous particles, not unlike gum-arabic. These 

 insects seem to be furnished with an acid of a very penetrating odor, 

 which perhaps is useful to them for softening the wood.^ The soldiers in 

 these societies are as about one to twenty-five of the laborers.'-^ The 

 anonymous author of the observations on the Termites of Ceylon seems 

 to have discovered a sentry-box in his nests. " I found," says he, " in a 



' Latr. Hist. Nat. xiii. 64. 2 N. Diet. D'Hist. Nat. xxii. 57, 58. 



