PlillFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 37 



species of Mucor ,- and by Mr. Konig, who found them 

 also in nests of an East-Indian species of Termes, is con- 

 jectured to be the food of the larvae. 



The royal cell has besides some soldiers in it, a kind 

 of body guard to the royal pair that inhabit it; and the 

 surrounding apartments contain always many both la- 

 bourers and soldiers in waiting, that they may succes- 

 sively attend upon and defend the common father and 

 mother, on whose safety depend the happiness and even 

 existence of the whole community; and whom these 

 faithful subjects never abandon even in the last distress. 



The manner in which the Termites feed the young 

 brood, before they commence their active life and are 

 admitted to share in the labours of the nest, has not, as 

 far as I know, been recorded by any writer: I shall 

 therefore leave them in their nurseries, and introduce 

 you to the bustling scene which these creatures exhibit 

 in their first state after they are become useful. To do 

 this, in vain should I carry you to one of their nests — 

 you would scarcely see a single one stirring — though, 

 perhaps, under your feet there would be millions going 

 and returning by a thousand different ways. Unless I 

 possessed the power of Asmodeus in Le Diahle Boiteux, 

 of showing you their houses and covered ways with their 

 roofs removed, you would return home as wise as you 

 came ; for these little busy creatures are taught by Pro- 

 vidence always to work under cover. If they have to 

 travel over a rock or up a tree, they vault with a coping 

 of earth the route they mean to pursue, and they form 

 subterranean paths and tunnels, some of a diameter 

 wider than the bore of a large cannon, on all sides from 

 their liabitation to their various objects of attack ; or 



