310 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



their innumerable enemies. This circumstance hns deceived the author of 

 the MS. account of those in Ceylon, who, speaking of the nests of these 

 insects in that island, which he describes as twelve feet high, observes, 

 that " they may be considered as a larue city, which contains a great 

 number of iiouses, and these houses an infinite number of cells or apart- 

 ments : — these cells appear to me to communicate with each other, but 

 not the houses. I have convinced myself, by bringing together the broken 

 walls of one of the cavities of the nest or cone, that it does not communi- 

 cate with any other, nor ivith the exterior of the cone, — a very curious 

 circumstance, which I will not undertake to explain. Other cavities com- 

 municate by a very narrow tunnel." By not looking for subterranean 

 communications, he was probably led into this error. 



You have before heard of their diligence in building. Does any accident 

 happen to their various structures, or are they dislodged from any of their 

 covered ways, they are still more active and expeditious in repairing. 

 Getting out of sight as soon as possible — and they run as fast or faster 

 than any insect of their size — in a single night they will restore a gallery 

 of three or four yards in length. If, attacking the nest, you divide it in 

 halves, leaving the royal chamber, and thus lay open thousands of apart- 

 ments, all will be shut up with their sheets of clay by the next morning ; 

 — nay, even if the whole be demolished, provided the king and the queen 

 be left, every interstice between the ruins, at which either cold or wet can 

 possibly enter, will be covered, and in a year the building will be raised 

 nearly to its pristine size and grandeur. 



Besides building and repairing, a great deal of their time is occupied in 

 making necessary alterations in their mansion and its approaches. The 

 royal [)resence-chamber, as the female increases in size, must be gradually 

 enlarged, the nurseries must be removed to a greater distance, the 

 chambers and exterior of the nest receive daily accessions to provide for a 

 daily increasing population ; and the direction of their covered ways must 

 often be varied, when the old stock of provision is exhausted and new 

 discovered. 



The collection of provisions for the use of the colony is another em- 

 ployment, which necessarily calls for incessant attention : these to the 

 naked eye appear like raspings of wood ; — and they are, as you have seen, 

 great destroyers of timber, whether wrought or unwrought : — but when 

 examined by the microscope, they are found to consist chiefly of gums and 

 the inspissated juices of plants, which, formed into little masses, are stored 

 up in magazines of clay. 



When any one is bold enough to attack their nest and make a breach 

 in its walls, the labourers, who are incapable of fighting, retire within, and 

 give place to another description of its inhabitants, whose office it is to 

 defend the fortress when assailed by enemies : — these, as observed before, 

 are the neuters or soldiers. If the breach be made in a slight part of the 

 buildin<r, one of these comes out to reconnoitre ; he then retires and gives 

 the alarm. Two or three others next appear, scrambling as fast as they 

 can one after the other ; — to these succeed a large body, who rush forth 

 with as much speed as the breach will permit, their numbers continually 

 increasing during the attack. It is not easy to describe the rage and fury 

 by which these diminutive heroes seem actuated. In their baste they 

 frequently miss their hold, and tumble down the sides of their hill : they 

 soon, however, recover themselves, and, being blind, bite every thing they 



