948 
work and to fight for them, until 
they shall have raised a progeny ca- 
pable at least of dividing the task 
with them. 
About this time a most extraordi- 
nary change begins to take place in 
the queen, to which J know nothing 
similar, except in the pulex penetrans 
of Linneus, the jigger of the West 
Indies, and in the different species of 
coccus, cochineal. The abdomen of 
this female begins gradually to ex- 
tend and enlarge to such an enor- 
mous size, that an old queen will 
have it increased so as to be fifteen 
hundred or two thousand times the 
bulk of the rest of her body, and 
twenty or thirty thousand times the 
bulk of a labourer, as J have found 
by carefully weighing and computing 
the different states. The skin, be- 
tween the segments of the abdomen 
extends in every direction ; and at 
last the segments are removed to 
half an inch distance from each 
other, though at first the length of: 
the whole abdomen is not half an 
inch. They preserve their dark 
brown colour, and the upper part of 
the abdomen is marked with a regu- 
lar series of brown bars, from the 
thorax to the posterior part of the 
abdomen, while the intervals be- 
tween them are covered with a thin, 
delicate, transparent skin, and ap- 
pear of a fine cream colour, a little 
shaded by the dark colour of the in- 
testines and watery fluid seen here 
and there beneath. I conjecture the 
animal is upwards of two years old 
when the abdomen is increased to 
three inches in length : Ihave some- 
times found them of near twice that 
size. The abdomen is now of an 
irregular oblong shape, being con- 
tracted by the muscles of every seg- 
ment, and is become one vast ma- 
trix tull ef eggs, which make long 
ANNUAL RE 
GIS TER, 1806. ° 
circumvolutions, through an innu- 
merable quantity of ‘very minute 
vessels, that circulate round the 
inside, in @ serpentine manner, which 
would exercise the ingenuity of a 
skilful anatomist to dissect and de- 
velope. This singular matrix is not 
more remarkable for its amazing 
extension and size, than for its pe- 
ristaltic motion, which resembles 
the undulating of waves, and conti- 
nues incessantly, without apparent 
effort of the animal; so that one 
part or other alternately is rising 
and sinking in perpetual successior, 
and the matrix seems never at rest, 
but is always protruding eggs to the 
amount (as I have frequently count- 
ed in old queens) ef sixty in a mi- 
nute, or eighty thousand and upward 
in one day of twenty-four hours. 
These eggs are instantly taken 
from her body by her attendants, of 
whom there always are in the royal 
chamber and galleries adjacent, a 
sufficient number in waiting, and 
carried to the nurseries, which, in a 
great nest, may some of them be 
four or five feet distant, in a straight 
line, and consequently much farther 
by their winding galleries. Here, 
atter they are hatched, the young 
are attended and provided with 
every thing necessary, until they are 
able to shift for themselves, and 
take their share of the labours of the 
community. ‘The foregoing, I flat. 
ter myself, isan accurate description 
and account of the dermes bellicosus, 
or species that builds the large nests 
in its different states, 
The termites except their heads, 
are exceeding soft, and. covered with 
a very thin and delicate skin; being 
blind, they are no match on open 
ground for the ants, who can see, 
and are all of them covered with a 
strong horny shell, not easily pierced, 
and 
