34 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



of the colony. Though at their first disclosure from 

 the pupa they have four wings, like the female ants 

 they soon cast them ; but they may then be distin- 

 guished from the blind larvae, pupa?, and neuters, by 

 their large and prominent eyes"^. 



The first establishment of a colony of Termites takes 

 place in the following manner. In the evening, soon 

 after the first tornado, which at the latter end of the 

 dry season proclaims tlie approach of the ensuing rains, 

 these animals, having attained to their perfect state, in 

 which they are furnished and adorned with two pair of 

 wings, emerge from their clay-built citadels by myri- 

 ads and myriads, to seek their fortune. Borne on these 

 ample wings, and carried by the wind, they fill the air, 

 entering the houses, extinguishing the lights, and even 

 sometimes being driven on board the ships that are not 

 far from the shore. The next morning they are dis- 

 covered covering the surface of the earth and waters : 

 deprived of the wings wliich enable them to avoid their 

 numerous enemies, and which are only calculated to 

 carry them a few hours, and looking like large mag- 

 gots : from the most active, industrious, and rapacious, 

 they are now become tlie most helpless and cowardly 

 beings in nature, and the prey of innumerable enemies, 

 to the smallest of which they make not the least resist- 

 ance. Insects, especially ants, which are always on 

 the hunt for them, leaving no place unexplored; birds, 

 reptiles, beasts, and even man himself, look upon this 



* The neuters in .ill rcspi'cts bear a stronger analog^y to the larvae than 

 to the perfect insects; and, affcr all, may possibly turn out to be larvje, 

 perhaps of the males. Iluber seems to doubt their being neuters. Nouv* 

 Obs. ii. 441, note *. 



