382 INSECTS ABROAD. 



rushes a body of soldiers, with widety-opened jaws, all eager to 

 attack the foe, and absolutely incapable of fear. Then other 

 soldiers muster long lines of labourers, each carrying a piece 

 of clay, and in a wonderfully short time the breach is repair) d. 

 It is very strange that both the workers and soldiers should be 

 absolutely without eyes, and yet able to construct the compli- 

 cated edifices for which they are so celebrated. Still, such is 

 the case — blind soldiers directing the blind workers by some 

 S} r stem of signalling which we cannot understand. In propor- 

 tion to the labourers the soldiers are very few in number, 

 scarcely more than 1 per cent. 



In my collection are some of the specimens from which the 

 illustrations were drawn. The enormous head is brown-black, 



hard, horny, and not with the 

 strongest light and the best glass 

 can the least indication of eyes 

 be seen upon any part of the 

 head. The large and powerful 

 jaws are shining black, and, in 

 order to allow of free movement, 



* l °- 186 -X^ SOl<liC "' are set in a ™y dee P transverse 



groove in front of the head. 



The power of these jaws is manifest, even in a dead and dry 

 specimen, by viewing it on the under-side. Along the centre 

 there is a narrow horny ridge, which contains the muscles for 

 moving the secondary pair of jaws, or maxillae. But, on either 

 side of the ridge, the head swells out into two pear-shaped 

 lobes, each of them nearly as large as the thorax and abdomen 

 together. These lobes contain and give support to the muscles 

 which move the mandibles, or first pair of jaws, whose size and 

 power can be far better seen on the under than on the upper 

 surface, where a considerable portion of the base is hidden by 

 the projecting front of the head. Compared with the enormous 

 head, the legs are quite slender and feeble, and the abdomen, 

 even in a fresh state, is comparatively insignificant. 



