108 TKINIDAD. 



destructive. The nymph is of a whitish colour, and without 

 wings. The males and females are provided with very long 

 wings, of a dark-blue colour, and the insects themselves are of a 

 light brown hue, with a brownish dark head ; the wings are very 

 readily detached, which operation the animal itself performs with 

 its legs. During, or after, heavy rains, they issue, as it were, 

 from every comer, literally clouding the air, where they become 

 the prey, of swallows and other birds. This remark does not 

 apply to the termites only, for cockroaches, ants, and other 

 insects are observed to rush out of retreats, or to abandon their 

 nests in heavy rains, some in a state of visible anxiety, as the 

 cockroaches, for instance, which are seen running or flying in 

 all directions. How to account for this influence of rain? 

 Really, I cannot discover any satisfactory explanation : they are 

 not forced out by inundations, since many live in houses ; they 

 do not come forth in search of food, not even, I think, with 

 a view to breeding. The wood-lice are certainly very destruc- 

 tive, but their ravages here are not, by any means, to be com- 

 pared with those of the white ant in Africa, and southern Asia, 

 particularly. They build their nests in trees, or in houses on 

 the beams and rafters, with covered galleries for communication 

 from one point to another ; but they more commonly take their 

 lodging within the wood itself, which they gradually destroy, 

 and that in a very short time, by forming longitudinal excava- 

 tions throughout the interior. Scantling, boards, &c, thus 

 eaten away, become a mere shell, and break down, though to all 

 external appearance entire and sound. They attack, in pre- 

 ference, the softer woods, and are very partial to white pine, and 

 other foreign timber : but they rarely invade the country 

 growths, and especially our hard woods ; hence the inappreciable 

 advantage of the latter for building purposes. I am not aware 

 that the termites of the island ever raise such pyramidal earth- 

 structures as the white ants of Africa and Asia do. 



Ants. — Few countries can be said to harbour so many species 

 of ants, and in such numbers, as Trinidad. Although it is not 

 pretended that a description of all can be given, above twenty 

 distinct species are, however, well known. Of these, several 

 tribes inhabit the high woods, and are never seen in towns or 

 dwelling-houses ; while others seem to prefer the haunts of man, 

 where they find an abundance of food. They vary in length from 



