PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 39 



clay by the next morning ; nay, even if the whole be 

 demolished, provided the king and the queen be left, 

 every interstice between the ruins, at which either cold 

 or wet can possibly enter, will be covered, and in a year 

 the building will be raised nearly to its pristine size and 

 grandeur. 



Besides building and repairing, a great deal of their 

 time is occupied in making necessary alterations in their 

 mansion and its approaches. The royal presence-cham- 

 ber, as the female increases in size, must be gradually 

 enlarged, the nurseries must be removed to a greater 

 distance, the chambers and exterior of the nest receive 

 daily accessions to provide for a daily increasing popu- 

 lation and the direction of their covered ways must 

 often be varied, when the old stock of provision is ex- 

 hausted and new discovered. 



The collection of provisions for the use of the colony 

 is another employment, which necessarily calls for inces- 

 sant attention : these to the naked eye appear like rasp- 

 ings of wood; and they are, as you have seen, great 

 destroyers of timber, whether wrought or unwrought : 

 but when examined by the microscope, they are found 

 to consist chiefly of gums and the inspissated juices of 

 plants, which, formed into little masses, are stored up in 

 magazines made of clay. 



When any one is bold, enough to attack their nest and 

 make a breach in its walls, the labourers, who are inca- 

 pable of fighting, retire within, and give place to another 

 description of its inhabitants, whose office it is to defend 

 the fortress when assailed by enemies : these, as ob- 

 served before, are the neuters or soldiers. If the breach 

 be made in a slight part of the building, one of these 



