Cuap. VIII. TERMITES OR WHITE ANTS. 209 
not within reach of European observers. I will give a short summary 
of my observations, and with this we shall have done with Santarem 
and its neighbourhood.* 
White ants are small, pale-coloured, soft-bodied insects, having 
scarcely anything in common with true ants, except their consisting, in 
each species and family, of several distinct orders of individuals or 
castes which live together in populous, organised communities. in 
both there are, besides the males and females, a set of individuals of 
no fully-developed sex, immensely more numerous than their brothers 
and sisters, whose task is to work and care for the young brood. In 
true ants this class of the community consists of undeveloped females, 
and when it comprises, as is the case in many species, individuals of 
different structure, the functions of these do not seem to be rigidly 
defined. ‘The contrary happens in the Termites, and this perhaps 
shows that the organisation of their communities has reached a higher 
stage, the division of labour being more complete. ‘The neuters in 
these wonderful insects are always divided into two classes—fighters 
and workers ; both are blind, and each keeps to its own task ; the one 
to build, make covered roads, nurse the young brood from the egg 
upwards, take care of the king and queen, who are the progenitors of 
the whole colony, and secure the exit of the males and females, when 
they acquire wings and fly out to pair and disseminate the race; the 
other to defend the community against all comers. Ants and termites 
are also widely different in their mode of growth, or, as it is called, 
metamorphosis. Ants in their early stage are footless grubs, which, 
before they reach the adult state, pass through an intermediate quiescent 
stage (pupa) inclosed ina membrane. Termites, on the contrary, have 
a similar form when they emerge from the egg to that which they retain 
throughout life; the chief difference being the gradual acquisition of 
eyes and wings in the sexual individuals during the latter stages of 
growth. Termites and true ants, in fact, belong to two widely dissimilar 
orders of insects, and the analogy between them is only a general one 
of habits. The mode of growth of Termites and the active condition 
of their younger stages (larva and pupa) make the constitution of their 
communities much more difficult of comprehension than that of ants ; 
hence how many castes existed, and what sort of individuals they were 
composed of, if not males and females, have always been puzzles to 
naturalists in the absence of direct observation. 
What a strange spectacle is offered to us in the organisation of these 
insect communities! Nothing analogous occurs amongst the higher 
animals. Social instincts exist in many species of mammals and birds, 
where numerous individuals unite to build common habitations, as we 
see in the case of weaver-birds and beavers ; but the principle of division 
of labour, the setting apart of classes of individuals for certain employ- 
ments, occur only in human societies in an advanced state of civilisa- 
tion. In all the higher animals there are only two orders of individuals 
* My original notes on the Termites, comprising all details, were sent to Professor 
Westwood (Oxford) in 1854 and 1855; they were not printed in England, but have 
been translated into German, and published by Dr. Hagen, with his monograph of the 
family, in the ‘‘ Linnea Entomologica,” 12 Band, Stettin, 1858, p. 207, ff. 
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