T E R M I T I D JE. 



789 



dation of fresh colonies. At this period they are also 

 eaten by the Africans; and Smeathman pays they are 

 delicate, nourishing-, and wholesome, when merely 

 roasted in the manner of coffee, without any sauce 

 or other help from cookery. The same author in- 

 forms us, that the few fortunate pairs which happen to 

 survive this annual massacre and destruction, and are 

 found by the labourers, which are continually running 

 about on the surface of the ground, are by them 

 elected Kings and Queens of nesv states, and are 

 immediately protected from their innumerable ene- 

 mies, but with the loss of their liberty and ultimately 

 of their lives, being enclosed by the workers in a 

 chamber of clay, " where the process of propagation 

 soon commences." The young queen of the hive- 

 swarms is followed by a portion of the community, 

 and the female ant, after swarming, and the loss of 

 her wings, is guarded by the worker ants ; there is 

 therefore so much analogy in these circumstances, 

 that we are almost tempted to consider that Smeath- 

 mau must have erred in stating that the working 

 termites imprison both the king and queen termes. 

 That it should be necessary for the latter to be care- 

 fully guarded will be very evident, but why the king, 

 in his helpless and wingless state (for we consider that 

 the loss of wings is consequent upon and not prece- 

 dent to pairing), should be shut up, seems question- 

 able. We make these observations with hesitation, 

 because Latreille (Regne Animal, v. 5, p. 255, 2nd 

 edit.), and Kirby and Spence (Introd. vol. 2, p. 35) 

 seem to adopt, without any hesitation, this statement 

 of Smeathman. 



3, Queen in the first or winged state. 4 Ditto, filled with eggs. 



Soon after the imprisonment of the captured queen 

 a great change takes place in her appearance. The 

 abdomen, which at first was of the ordinary size, 

 now increases in bulk, and at length becomes of such 

 an enormous size as to exceed the bulk of the rest of 

 her body 1500 or 2000 times. She becomes a thousand 

 times heavier than her consort, and exceeds 20,000 

 0^30,000 times the bulk of one of the workers ; in 

 this state the matrix has a constant peristaltic or 

 undulating motion, in consequence of which eggs, to 

 the number of 80,000, are discharged in the course 

 of twenty -four hours. 



There still, however, remain to be noticed another 

 class of inhabitants, which are totally unlike any 

 other of the inhabitants, and of which there is no 

 analogous example in any of the other tribes of 

 insects ; these are called neuters, although Fabricius 

 erroneously considered them as pztpce. Smeathman 

 calls them soldiers, from their duties in the nest, 

 observing, that they have been supposed by some 



authors to be males and the workers to be neuters, 

 but that they are in fact the same insects as the 

 workers, only they have undergone a change of form, 

 and approached one degree nearer to the perfect 

 state ; but this opinion is opposed by Latreille, in 

 consequence of the large size of the head and the 

 want of rudimental wing-cases, which would be ex- 

 hibited were the soldier insects in the pupa state. 

 Kirby and ISpence think the soldiers may possibly 

 be the larvas of the males. Huber seems to doubt 

 their being neuters. They are much less numerous 

 than the workers, being in the proportion of one to 

 one hundred, and considerably exceeding them in 

 size ; they are destitute of wings, and have no trace 

 of the rudimental wing covers of the pupae ; the head 

 is very large and horny, and armed with very long 

 slender curved jaws ; their duly is to guard the nest 

 when attacked, for which purpose they are stationed 

 nearer to its exterior surface, and they present them- 

 selves the first in case of a breach made in the walls; 

 they bite with considerable force, and it is said they 

 impel the workers to their labour when they are 

 inclined to be lazy. It would be very interesting for 

 persons abroad, having opportunities for so doing, to 

 endeavour to discover what are the earliest stages of 

 these soldiers' existence, in order to ascertain whether 

 they remain permanently apterous, being, like the 

 wingless specimens of Velia currens, figured in the 

 article INSECT, retarded in their transformations, their 

 development being stopped short before their arrival 

 at maturity, and thereby gaining an enlarged head, 

 in order to compensate for their ultimate want of 

 wings. 



Such are the different classes of a community of 

 white ants. Their habitation now requires more 

 particular description. The forms of their nests are 

 varied according to the species by which they are 

 formed. The Termes fatale, Linnaeus, (Bellicosus, 

 Smeathman), whose history has been most especially 



noticed, forms the largest nests, being, as abovs 

 mentioned, ten or twelve feet in height, of a conical 

 form, with numerous conical turrets on its sides ; this 

 is formed of clay, and being soon coated with growing 

 grass, very much resembles a hay-cock. Termes 

 atrox and mordax build cylindrical pillars three 

 quarters of a yard high, with a projecting conical 

 roof; whilst T. destructor, Fabricius, (Arborum, 

 Smeathman), constructs its nests of different sizes 

 amongst the branches of trees often seventy or eighty 

 feet high. Of the strength of these erections 

 Smeathman's account enables us to form a clear 

 notion. When raised to little more than half their 

 height, it is the practice of the wild bulls to stand as 

 sentinels upon them, whilst the rest of the herd is 



