48 LIFE STORIES OF AUSTRALIAN INSECTS. 



leave this cell after she has developed and become 

 so large. The nursery is close by, and as the young 

 develop, they are transferred from one set of rooms 

 to another. Some termites do not build a neSt of 

 the type described, but found a home at first in the 

 ground, then hollow out galleries in some overlying 

 timber. Paling fences and wooden houses built on 

 the ground are often completely destroyed in this 

 way. The outside of the wood as a rule is left 

 intact, the whole of the inside being eaten away, 

 except for very flimsy partitions which separate the 

 galleries. If it becomes necessary for work to be 

 carried out on the outside of timber, it is done under 

 shelter of a tiny saw-dust cemented cover. These 

 insects truly love darkness rather than light. 



Few timbers in Australia are exempt from their 

 attacks. Cedar, red and white mahogany seem 

 almost proof against them. Iron-bark does not al- 

 ways remain free from their ravages. On the 

 northern rivers of New South Wales, and in 

 Queensland, where so many houses are built of 

 wood, we find that the portion below the floor is 

 not enclosed, thus leaving the piles exposed to the 

 light and air, and to a great extent keeping out 

 the white ants. Piles too are often capped with 

 zinc or tin. Timber for building purposes is fre- 

 quently treated with wood preserving oil or paint 

 in which a percentage of arsenic to a gallon of oil 

 has proved a most effective mixture. 



