TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). HI 



History, 1883, a third species, Termes flavipes, found iu Portugal and the south of 

 France, was originally introduced from North Africa. 



Still more recently (1870), a very destructive species of White Ant, Eutermes 

 tennis, has been accidentally introduced into St. Helena with a captured slave ship 

 from tropical America. Such were the ravages which this species committed on that 

 Island, that in Jamestown, the capital, the larger number of the buildings were 

 destroyed and had to be rebuilt, the damage to property being reckoned at 

 the lowest estimate to amount to no less than 60,000. Some of the results of 

 the destructive work of this termite are thus narrated by Mr. J. C. Melliss in his 

 book " St. Helena," 1875. " It was a melancholy sight five years ago, to see the 

 town desolated as by an earthquake or, as a visitor remarked, by a state of siege 

 the chief church in ruins, public buildings in a state of dilapidation, and private 

 houses tottering and falling, with great timber props butting out and meeting the 

 the eye at every turn. Books and records in the library and Government offices 

 were destroyed, and merchandise of every consumable description devoured in the 

 warehouses." Among other remarkable phenomena chronicled as having been brought 

 about at Jamestown through this termite agency was the very singular spectacle of a 

 large Margossa tree, Melia azederach, in full foliage, which, without any previous 

 warning, and to the great discomforture of two native policemen who were 

 standing near it, was seen to sway, totter, and suddenly fall to pieces. On exam- 

 ination it was found that the inside of the tree was completely eaten away, 

 leaving only a thin external shell. Eutermes tennis agrees with the majority of the 

 more destructive species in constructing no conspicuous nest or mound, but lives 

 and breeds in subterranean chambers and galleries. 



It has been remarked on a previous page that the account and figures given 

 by Henry Smeathman of the termitaria and habits of certain West African Termites 

 so long ago as the year 1781, constitute up to the present date the most com- 

 plete record extant concerning the tropical nest-building forms. As an indication 

 of the good work in the same direction that awaits accomplishment with relation 

 to the internal architectural details of the edifices, as well as the life phenomena and 

 habits of the hitherto unstudied Australian species, Mr. Smeathman's Memoir may 

 be advantageously quoted at some length. Briefly summarising the results of Mr. 

 Smeathman's investigations, we find that they include the descriptions and figures of 

 three nest-building Termites, and also a reference to a fourth variety, the Marching- 

 Termite, remarkable for the recorded circumstance that, unlike all other known 



