CiiAP. XI. MUSHROOM-HIVED TEEMES. 215 



soldier class of the ants, wliicli I took to be males, 

 all striving to bite the intruder with their pincer-like 

 jaws. On breaking open the ball — which, when 

 handled, divided itself into three parts — I always 

 fonnd it full of young white ants in different stages 

 of growth, and also of eggs. The young were ot a 

 milky-white colour, while the adults were yellowish, 

 with a tinge of grey when the abdomen is full of 

 earth. Besides these young ants, there were a great 

 many full-grown individuals, whom I took to be 

 females, and who appeared to be the workers or 

 labourers described by entomologists. These have 

 not elongated nippers like the soldiers, but have very 

 bulky abdomens, and they are inoffensive. AVe shall 

 see presently what their distended abdomens are used 

 for. Besides these soldiers and workers, I always 

 saw, whenever I broke a hive, a very much larger 

 specimen than the other two, which came in from 

 the inner galleries, looked round, and went away 

 again. These large ants were very few in number. 

 There were, therefore, three distinct sets of indi- 

 viduals. To these large ones I shall give the name 

 of head men or chiefs. 



In order to examine the rest of the structure I 

 often took an axe and broke the nest into several 

 pieces ; but the material was so hard that it required 

 several blows before I succeeded. I tried then to 

 make out the structure of the chambers and galleries 

 of which the interior was composed. But before I 

 could do this, I was somewhat perplexed at dis- 

 covering that there w^as another distinct species of 

 white ant mixed up with the proper architects of the 



