Mr. T. S. Savage on the Termitidje of West Africa. 99 



consequent upon and not precedent to pairing) should be shut up, 

 seems questionable. VYe make these observations with hesitation, 

 because Latreille, and Kirby and Spence seem to adopt, without 

 hesitation, this statement of Smeathman.^' 



I feel it my duty to notice particularly this doubt, coming as 

 it does from a source of such high respectability as the present 

 Corresponding Secretary of the London Ent. Soc, J. O. West- 

 wood, Esq. 



It should be remembered that in penning this doubt, Mr.West- 

 wood was sitting within-doors at Hammersmith, England, many 

 thousand miles distant from the scene of Mr. Smeathman^s patient 

 and prolonged observation. Mr. Smeathman states what he knew 

 to be a fact y and respecting which I can see no way in which he 

 could be mistaken. Mr. Westwood misapprehends a remark of 

 Mr. Smeathman on their " swarming,^^ if it can be so called. I 

 do not understand Mr. Smeathman to state that the queen is 

 accompanied by any other individuals than those of the two 

 sexes — other perfect males and females. He says that as workers 

 are always to be found on the surface of the ground, the king and 

 queen are captured by them, and thus made to become the heads 

 of new communities. On what foundation this statement rests 

 I know not ; but must confess that in this part of their ceconomy 

 I think there exists a lacuna yet to be filled. As to the state- 

 ment, however, involving the perpetual imprisonment of the 

 king and queen, I have no doubt. The facts respecting the struc- 

 ture of the *' royal chamber " sufficiently prove it. Any one who 

 has seen a fully-developed queen will say that she is incapable of 

 progression, and the fact that no aperture has been discovered 

 in the " chamber " among the many hills dissected at dificrent 

 seasons, sufficient to admit of the ingress and egress of the king, 

 aud hardly of the larger class of soldiers, must suffice. 



It has been stated also by compilers of Smeathman, that the 

 insect shrinks from light, which is a reason for their constructing 

 covered ways. But if it be remembered that the two orders — 

 soldiers and workers — are perfectly blind, the assertion must 

 appear to be gratuitous. The true cause of their erection of 

 covered ways would seem to lie in the fact that the insect is a 

 prey to a vast number of other insects, reptiles, &c. 



Smeathman and others state that Termes bellicosus is the insect 

 which devours dwelling-houses, furniture, &c. This also I con- 

 sider an error. I doubted its accuracy at the commencement of 

 my observations, and made inquiries subsequently of intelligent 

 observers at Sierra Leone and Montserrado, all of whom confirmed 

 me in my doubts. The white ants found in our houses preying 

 on our furniture, books, &c. are smaller, and larger in proportion 

 to their breadth, than T. bellicosus. The soldiers which accom- 



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