212 SANTAREM. Cuap, VIII. 
together by the saliva of the insects. There is no visible mode of 
ingress or egress, the entrances being connected with covered roads, 
which are the sole means of communication with the outer world. The 
structures are prominent objects in all tropical countries. The very 
large hillocks at Santarem are the work of many distinct species, each 
of which uses materials differently compacted, and keeps to its own 
portion of the tumulus. One kind, Termes arenarius, on which these 
remarks are chiefly founded, makes little conical hillocks of friable 
structure, a foot or two in height, and is generally the sole occupier. 
Another kind (Termes exiguus) builds small dome-shaped papery 
edifices. | Many species live on trees, their earthy nests, of all sizes, 
looking like ugly excrescences on the trunks and branches. Some are 
wholly subterranean, and others live under the bark, or in the interior 
of trees: it is these two latter kinds which get into houses and destroy 
furniture, books, and clothing. All hives do not contain a queen and 
her partner. Some are new constructions, and, when taken to pieces, 
show only a large number of workers occupied in bringing eggs from 
an old over-stocked Termitarium, with a small detachment of soldiers 
evidently told off for their protection. 
A few weeks before the exodus of the winged males and females a 
completed Termitarium contains Termites of all castes and in all stages 
of development. On close examination I found the young of each of 
the four orders of individuals crowded together, and apparently feeding 
in the same cells. ‘The full-grown workers showed the greatest attention 
to the young larve, carrying them in their mouths along the galleries 
from one cell to another, but they took no notice of the full-grown 
ones. It was not possible to distinguish the larve of the four classes 
when extremely young, but at an advanced stage it was easy to see 
which were to become males and females, and which workers and 
soldiers. The workers have the same form throughout, the soldiers 
showed in their later stages of growth the large head and cephalic 
processes, but much less developed than in the adult state. The males 
and females were distinguishable by the possession of rudimentary 
wings and eyes, which increased in size after three successive changes 
of skin. 
Thus I think I made out that the soldier and worker castes are, 
like the males and females, distinct from the egg; they are not made 
so by a difference of food or treatment during their earlier stages, and 
they never become winged insects. The workers and soldiers feed on 
decayed wood and other vegetable substances ; I could not clearly ascer- 
tain what the young fed upon, but they are seen of all sizes, larvee and 
pupze, huddled together in the same cells, with their heads converging 
towards the bottom, and I thought I sometimes detected the workers 
discharging a liquid from their mouths into the cells. The growth of 
the young family is very rapid, and seems to be completed within the 
year: the greatest event of Termite life then takes place—namely, the 
coming of age of the winged males and females, and their exit from 
the hive. 
It is curious to watch a Termitarium when this exodus is taking 
place. The workers are set in the greatest activity, as if they were 
