White Ants. 



o, labourer, b, under side of its head magnified, c, soldier, d, one of its jaws magnified. 

 e. king, after losing his wings. /, queen. 



CHAPTER VII. 



HISTORY OF THE WHITE ANTS.* 



NEXT to the locusts, the white ants may be reckoned the 

 most destructive insects known to man ; not only articles 

 of food, but clothing, fences, trees, and even houses, are 

 doomed to fall before them. They live in immense com- 

 munities, consisting of a king and queen, soldiers, and 

 labourers; the king and queen are perfect insects, male 

 and female ; the soldiers are said to be the pupa state, and 

 the labourers the larva state, of the same insect. The only 

 office of the king and queen is to increase their kind ; the 

 queen laying eggs to the amount of eighty thousand every 

 day. It is the office of the soldiers to attack every object 



* Extracted from an " Account of the Termites of Africa, by Henry 

 Smeathman." Read before the Royal Society, 15th Feb. 1781. 



