60 SANTAREM. Chap. I. 



stone ; others are smaller, and constructed in a looser 

 manner. The ground is everywhere streaked with the 

 narrow covered galleries which are built up by the 

 insects of grains of earth different in colour from the 

 surrounding soil, to protect themselves whilst convey- 

 ing materials wherewith to build their cities — for such 

 the tumuli may be considered — or carrying their young 

 from one hillock to another. The same covered ways 

 are spread over all the dead timber, and about the 

 decaying roots of herbage, which serve as food to the 

 white ants. An examination of these tubular passages 

 or arcades in any part of the district, or a peep into 

 one of the tumuli, reveals always a throng of eager, 

 busy creatures. I became very much interested in 

 these insects while staying at Santarem, where many 

 circumstances favoured the study of their habits, and 

 examined several hundred colonies in endeavouring to 

 clear up obscure points in their natural history. Very 

 little, up to that date, had been recorded of the con- 

 stitution and economy of their communities, owing 

 doubtless to their not being found in northern and 

 central Europe, and, therefore, not within reach of 

 European observers. I will give a short summary of 

 my observations, and with this we shall have done with 

 Santarem and its neighbourhood.* 



White ants are small, pale-coloured, soft-bodied in- 

 sects, having scarcely anything in common with true 



* My original notes on the Termites, comprising all details, were 

 sent to Professor Westwood (Oxford) in 1854 and 1855 ; they were not 

 printed in England, but have been translated into German, and pub- 

 lished by Dr. Hagen, with his monograph of the family, in the Linnpea 

 Entomologica, 12 Band, Stettin, 1858, p. 207, ff. 



