206 CAIIIPI. Chap. V. 



not shed by tlie roots, for a small portion of the stumps 

 remained attached to the thorax. The edge of the 

 fracture was in all cases straight, not ruptured : there 

 is, in fact, a natural seam crossing the member towards 

 its root, and at this point the long wing naturally drops 

 or is jerked off when the insect has no further use for 

 it. The white ant is endowed with wings simply for 

 the purpose of flying away from the colony peopled by 

 its wingless companions, to pair with individuals of the 

 same or other colonies, and thus propagate and dissemi- 

 nate its kind. The winged individuals are males and 

 females, whilst the great bulk of their wingless fraternity 

 are of no sex, and are restricted to the functions of building 

 the nests, nursing and defending the young brood. The 

 two sexes mate whilst on the ground after the wings 

 are shed, and then the married couples, if they escape 

 the numerous enemies which lie in wait for them, 

 proceed to the task of founding new colonies. Ants 

 and white ants have much that is analogous in their 

 modes of life : they belong, however, to two widely 

 different orders of insects, strongly contrasted in their 

 structure and manner of growth. In some respects the 

 termites are more wonderful than the ants, but I shall 

 reserve an account of them for another chapter. 



I amassed at Caripi a very large collection of beauti- 

 ful and curious insects, amounting^ altogether to about 

 twelve hundred species. The number of Coleoptera 

 was remarkable, seeing that this order is so poorly re- 

 presented near Para. I attributed their abundance to 

 the number of new clearings made in the virgin forest by 

 the native settlers. The felled timber attracts ligni- 



