Chap. I. WHITE ANTS. 61 



ants, except their consisting, in each species and family, 

 of several distinct orders of individuals or castes which 

 live together in populous, organized communities. In 

 both there are, besides the males and females, a set of 

 individuals of no fully-developed sex, immensely more 

 numerous than their brothers and sisters, whose task 

 is to work and care for the young brood. In true ants 

 this class of the community consists of undeveloped 

 females, and when it comprises, as is the case in many 

 species, individuals of different structure, the func- 

 tions of these do not seem to be rigidly denned. The 

 contrary happens in the Termites, and this perhaps 

 shows that the organization of their communities has 

 reached a higher stage, the division of labour being 

 more complete. The neuters in these wonderful insects 

 are always divided into two classes — fighters and 

 workers ; both are blind, and each keeps to its own 

 task ; the one to build, make covered roads, nurse the 

 young brood from the egg upwards, take care of the 

 king and queen, who are the progenitors of the whole 

 colony, and secure the exit of the males and females, 

 when they acquire wings and fly out to pair and dis- 

 seminate the race : the other to defend the community 

 against all comers. Ants and termites are also widely 

 different in their mode of growth, or, as it is called, 

 metamorphosis. Ants in their early stage are footless 

 grubs, which, before they reach the adult state, pass 

 through an intermediate quiescent stage (pupa) in- 

 closed in a membrane. Termites, on the contrary, 

 have a similar form when they emerge from the egg to 

 that which they retain throughout life ; the chief dif- 



