258 



INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



being always situated as near the centre of the interior 

 building as possible. It is always nearly in the shape of 

 half an egg, or an obtuse oval, within, and may be supposed 

 to represent a long oven. In the infant state of the colony, 

 it is but about an inch in length; but in time will be 

 increased to six or eight inches, or more, in the clear, 

 being always in proportion to the size of the queen, who, 

 increasing in bulk as in age, at length requires a chamber 

 of such dimensions. 



Queen distended with Eggs. 



Its floor is perfectly horizontal, and, in large hillocks, 

 sometimes more than an inch thick of solid clay. The 

 roof, also, which is one solid and well-turned oval arch, is 

 tj-enerally of about the same solidity, but in some places it 

 is not a quarter of an inch thick, on the sides where it 

 joins the floor, and where the doors or entrances are made 

 level with it, at nearly equal distances from each other. 

 These entrances will not admit any animal larger than the 

 soldiers or labourers ; so that the king and the queen (who 

 is, at full size, a thousand times the weight of a king) can 

 never possibly go out, but remain close prisoners. 



The royal chamber, if in a large hillock, is surrounded 

 by a countless number of others, of different sizes, shapes, 

 and dimensions; but all of them arched in one way or 

 another — sometimes elliptical or oval. These either open 

 into each other, or communicate by passages as wide as, 

 and are evidently made for, the soldiers and attendants, of 

 whom o-reat numbers are necessary, and always in waiting. 

 These apartments are joined by the magazines and nurseries. 



