WHITE ANTS. ' 265 



Another of the species {Termes arhorum), described by 

 Smeathman, builds a nest on the exterior of trees, alto- 

 gether different from any of the preceding. These are of a 

 spherical or oval shape, occupying the arm or branch of a 

 tree sometimes from seventy to eighty feet from the ground, 

 and as large, in a few instances, as a sugar-cask. The 

 composition used for a building material is apparently 

 similar to that used by the warriors for constructing their 

 nurseries, being the gnawings of wood in very small par- 

 ticles, kneaded into a paste with some species of cement or 

 glue, procured, as Smeathman supposes, partly from gum- 

 miferous trees, and partly from themselves ; but it is more 

 probable, we think, that it is wholly secreted, like the wax 

 of bees, by the insects themselves. With this cement, 

 whatever may be its composition, they construct their cells, 

 in which there is nothing very wonderful except their 

 great numbers. They are very firmly built, and so strongly 

 attached to the trees, that they will resist the most violent 

 tornado. It is impossible, indeed, to detach them, except 

 by cutting them in pieces, or sawing off the branch, which 

 is frequently done to procure the insects for young turkeys. 

 (See engraving, p. 262, for a figure of this nest.) 



This species very often, instead of selecting the bough of 

 a tree, builds in the roof or wall of a house, and unless 

 observed in time, and expelled, occasions considerable 

 damage. It is easier, in fact, to shut one's door against a 

 fox or a thief, than to exclude such insidious enemies, 

 whose aversion to light renders it difficult to trace them 

 even when they are numerous. 



If we reflect on the prodigious numbers of those insects, 

 and their power and rapidity of destroying, we cannot 

 but admire the wisdom of Providence in creating so inde- 

 fatigable and useful an agent in countries where the decay 

 of vegetable substances is rapid in proportion to the heat 

 of the climate. We have already remarked that they 

 always prefer decaying or dead timber ; and it is indeed a 

 very general law among insects which feed on wood to 

 prefer what is unsound; the same principle holds with 

 respect to fungi, lichens, and other parasitical plants. 



