NEUROPTERA. 4I I 



All the species of termites are miners, but the greater number are 

 ilso architects and masons. A few make their nests round a branch 

 Df a tree. This nest is of enormous dimensions : it is as large as a 

 mn. The illustration (Plate X.) — after a drawing in Smeathman's 

 ?\rork — shows a nest of the Tennes bellicosus, composed of bits of 

 ivood firmly stuck together with gum. Above their subterranean 

 galleries the greater part of termites construct vast edifices, which 

 :ontain their magazines and nurseries. The Termes inordax and 

 Termes atrox raise perfect columns, surmounted by capitals which 

 eject beyond them and give them the appearance of monstrous 

 ushrooms. These columns attain a height of twenty inches, with a 

 diameter of five; they are constructed with a black clay, which, 

 i^orked up by the insects, acquires great hardness. The interior 

 is hollow, or rather perforated with irregular cells ; but the most 

 curious edifices are those of Termes bellicosus. These are irregularly 

 conical mounds, flanked by a certain number of turrets, decreasing 

 height. Smeathman gives them a height of from ten to twelve 

 Feet : but Jobson* afiirms that he has seen some as high as twenty 

 feet. If men constructed monuments so disproportionate to their 

 size, the great pyramid of Giseh, instead of being 146 metres 

 height, would be i,6oo, and would be higher than the Puy-de- 

 ome ! 



These knolls of earth are of a solidity which will bear any trial, 

 ^ot only can many men mount on them without shaking them, but 

 buffaloes establish themselves upon them as watch-towers, from which 

 :hey can see over the high grass which covers the plain, if the lion or 

 :he panther is threatening them. These edifices are hollow; but 

 ;heir sides are from fifteen to twenty inches thick, and are as hard as 

 I rock. They are hollowed out into galleries, which connect them 

 vith the underground dwelling. Under the dome is a pretty large 

 .^acant space, a sort of top storey or attic, occupying one-third of the 

 :otal height, and which keeps up in the edifice a more uniform tem- 

 perature than if all the block had been filled up. On a level with 

 he ground is the royal cell, oblong, with a flat floor and a rounded 

 :elling, and pierced with round windows. All round are distributed 

 he offices ; they are rooms also with rounded and vauked ceilings, 

 :ommunicating with each other by corridors. On the sides rise the 

 nagazines, with their backs placed against the walls of the house ; 

 hey are filled with gums and with vegetable juices solidified and in 

 )Owder. On the ceiling of the royal chamber rise pillars of about 



* ' ' History of Gambia. " 



