790 



T E R M 1 T I D JE. 



remaining below. When at their full height of ten 

 or twelve feet, they are used by the Europeans as 

 places to look out from over the top of the grass, 

 which grows, upon the average, thirteen feet high. 

 Indeed, Mr. Smeatltman himself stood with four men 

 on the top of one of those erections, in order to obtain 

 a view of any vessel which might come in sight. 



Fig. 7. Section of the nest of Termes fatale, on a scale of 

 one inch to eight feet: a, the royal chamber; b, the apartments 

 of the royal attendants -, c c, the nurseries and magazines ex- 

 tending up the sides of the nest ; d, the lower roof; e, the upper 

 roof; /, two bridges reaching from apertures in the lower roof 

 to some of the upper nurseries , #, the hollow dome ; h h, the 

 thick mud walls of the building, penetrated in various directions 

 by passages, i, of various sizes, chiefly in a spiral direction 

 from the bottom of the nest to the upper parts; Is, one of the 

 great under-ground outlets of the nest. 



The following account of the interior arrangement 

 of the nest is descriptive of that of Termes fatale 

 observed in Guinea, and other parts of the western 

 coast of Africa, by Mr. Smeathman : On making a 

 longitudinal section of the nest, it is perceived that 

 the lower portion of the building alone serves for the 

 habitation of the community, the upper part forming 

 an immense dome, serving not only as a defence 

 against the weather, but keeping up a genial warmth 

 in the inhabited parts of the nest, and which consists 

 of the royal chamber, the nurseries for the young, 

 the storehouses for food, and innumerable galleries, 

 passages, and empty spaces. The royal chamber is 

 placed in the centre of the building, nearly on the 

 level of the ground. At first it is only about an inch 

 long, and of a semi-oval form ; but, as the queen 

 increases in size, the apartments surrounding it are 

 pulled down, and the space thrown into that of the 

 queen's chamber, until it is eight inches or more in 

 length ; but, in order to prevent the escape of the 

 queen, the entrances into this chamber are so small 

 that workers only can enter. Around the royal 

 chamber, and extending on all sides a foot or more, 

 are an innumerable quantity of arched rooms, of 

 different shapes and sizes, for the accommodation of 

 the attendants and soldiers whose duty it is to wait 

 on the queen. Smeathman calls these the royal 

 apartments. Then come the nurseries or egg-cham- 

 bers and the food magazines. The former, in the 

 early stage of the colony, are ranged close to the 

 royal chamber ; but when the queen has attained a 

 much larger size, the space required for her enlarged 

 chamber, and for the apartments of her additional 

 attendants, extends so much farther, that the nur- 

 series are removed to a greater distance, being com- 

 posed entirely of wooden materials, seemingly joined 

 together with gums. Into these the attendant workers 

 immediately carry the eggs produced by the queen, 

 lodging them there as fast as they can obtain them 



from her, and communicating with each other by 

 empty passages on all sides. In these nurseries Mr. 

 Smeathman was induced to believe that the ants 

 formed a kind of garden for the cultivation of a 

 species of microscopical mushroom, appearing like a 

 kind of mould, among which arise numerous globules 

 about the size of a pin'w head ; and Mr. Konig, who 

 published an account of the East Indian Termites, 

 considered that this is the food of the larvae, or very 

 young insects, probably before they are sufficiently 

 strong and active to leave the nest. The cares of 

 the community for the education of the young progeny 

 is necessarily rendered much less irksome than it is' 

 in the case of the bees or ants, because in those 

 insects the larvae and pups are inactive, and totally 

 unable to provide for themselves ; but in the Termites 

 the whole period of the insect's existence, immediately 

 after its bursting from the egg, is one of activity, the 

 pupa not being quiescent, as in some other of the 

 neuropterous insects. 



The provision-cells are arranged without much 

 seeming order amongst the vacant passages which 

 surround the nurseries ; they are chambers of clay, 

 always well stored with provisions, consisting of bits 

 of wood, gums, and the inspissated juices of plants. 

 These cells, with the nurseries, are extended up the 

 sides of the dome, reaching to about one-third from 

 the top, and leaving an open area in the middle 

 under the dome. At the top of the nurseries is 

 extended a flattish roof, impervious to the wet, 

 should the upper part be damaged. The lower part 

 of the area, also above the royal chamber, has a 

 flattish roof, also water-proof. Above the upper of 

 those roofs the dome is hollow, but the outer walls of 

 the nest are of very great thickness, and perforated 

 with numerous passages, running from the top to the 

 bottom of the walls in various winding directions, 

 intersecting each other at different heights, and 

 opening either immediately into the dome, in dif- 

 ferent places, and into the lower half of the building, 

 or communicating with every part of it by other 

 smaller circular or oval galleries of various diameters. 

 The main underground galleries, by which egress and 

 ingress to the nest is effected, are a foot in diameter, 

 and run in a sloping direction under the bottom of 

 the nest to the depth of three or four feet, where 

 they branch out horizontally on every side, and are 

 carried underground, near to the surl'ace, to a very 

 great distance. Besides the passages reaching from 

 the lower to the upper magazines and nurseries, 

 bridges of a single arch, of great extent, are built 

 from the upper side of the lower roof above men- 

 tioned, and reaching to the upper apartments. Two 

 of these are represented in the annexed engraving. 

 By the assistance of these bridges a great saving of 

 labour, in transporting the eggs to the upper nur- 

 series, is effected. 



Of the operations of these insects, in the construc- 

 tion of their abode, some idea may be obtained from 

 the recital of the circumstances subsequent to the 

 making of a breach in any part of their outer wall. 

 One of the soldiers first makes its appearance, and 

 walks about the breach as if to see whether the 

 enemy be gone, and to discover whence the attack 

 proceeds. In a short time two or three others 

 appear, and soon afterwards a more numerous body, 

 who rush out as fast as the breach will permit them, 

 their numbers increasing so long as any one con- 

 tinues to batter the building. During this time they 



