WHITE ANTS. 65 



chambers and apartments. One of these bridges, of an el- 

 liptic form, was found to measure half an inch in breadth, 

 a quarter of an inch in thickness, and ten inches in length. 

 It was strengthened by a small arch at the bottom, and the 

 footway on its upper surface was grooved throughout its 

 entire length, either for the purpose of affording greater 

 security to the labourers in passing over it, or from being 

 so worn by then: constant treading. 



It has been before observed that each community of 

 white ants consists of a king and queen, soldiers, and la- 

 bourers. The labourers are the most numerous, there 

 being at least a hundred of them to one soldier. They are 

 in this state about one fourth of an inch long, and twenty- 

 five of them weigh about a grain ; so that they are not so 

 large as some of our ants. From their external habit and 

 fondness for wood, they have been very expressively called 

 wood-lice by some people ; and the whole genus has been 

 known by that name, particularly among the French. 

 They run as fast or faster than any other insects of their 

 size, and are incessantly bustling about their affairs. The 

 second order, or soldiers, have a very different form from 

 the labourers, and by some authors have been supposed to 

 be the males, and the former neuters ; but they are in fact 

 the same insects as the foregoing, only they have under- 

 gone a change of form, and approached one degree nearer 

 to the perfect state. They are now much larger, being half 

 an inch long, and equal in bulk to fifteen of the labourers. 

 The third order, or the insect in its perfect state, varies in 

 form still more than ever. The head, thorax and abdomen, 

 differ almost entirely from the same parts in the labourers 

 and soldiers ; and besides this, the animal is now furnished 

 with four fine, large, brownish, transparent wings, with 

 which, at the time of emigration, it is to wing its way in 

 search of a new settlement. In short, it differs so much 



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