20 



meadow ant, and they were so close together that they did 

 not cover a space of more than thirty yards by ten. 



I think that the intelligence of ants is popularly some- 

 what overstated, and this idea seems to be carried out by 

 the experiments given fully in Sir John Lubbock's book on 

 ants. Before concluding, I will say a few words about the 

 Termites, which are so commonly mistaken for ants., as is 

 shewn by their popular name of ' white ants.' These be- 

 long to the Neuropterous order of insects, while ants are 

 included in the Hymenoptera. Most of the species are 

 confined to tropical countries, where they frequently build 

 conical nests above-ground nearly as large as native huts, 

 which they very much resemble. Like ants, their colonies are 

 divided into three classes of individuals, the males, females, 

 and neuters or workers. The latter differ from the others 

 in having no wings, a stouter body, head much longer, and in 

 being provided with long jaws which cross at the tips. They 

 sometimes make their nests in the wood-work of houses in 

 which they form innumerable galleries, all of which lead to a 

 central point, but in making these galleries they avoid pierc- 

 ing the surface of the wood, so that it appears to be quite 

 sound until it is touched. 



