672 



Cmtgttry of Natural 



tremely fast, and appear to be incessantly 

 occupied. The second order, or soldiers, 

 have a very different form from the labourers, 

 but they are in fact the same insects, only 

 they have undergone their first metamor- 

 phosis, and approached one degree nearer to 

 the perfect state. They are now much larger, 

 being half an inch long, and equal in bulk 

 to fifteen of the labourers. The third order, 

 or insect in its perfect state, varies in form 

 still more than ever. The he_ad, thorax, and 

 abdomen differ almost entirely from the 

 same parts in the labourers and soldiers ; 

 and besides this, the animal is now furnished 

 with four fine, large, brownish, transparent 

 wings, with which, at the time of emigration, 

 it is to wing its way in search of a new set- 

 tlement. In their winged state they are also 

 much altered in size as well as form. Their 

 bodies now measure between six and seven 

 tenths of an inch in length, and their wings 

 above two inches and a half from tip to tip, 

 and they are equal in bulk to about thirty 

 labourers or two soldiers. They are now 

 also furnished with two large eyes, one on 

 each side of the head ; if they have any 

 before, they are so small as not easily to be 

 distinguished ; and as they live, like moles, 

 always under ground, they have as little 

 occasion for these organs ; but the case is 

 widely different when they arrive at the 

 winged state, in which they are to roam, 

 though but for a brief space, through the air, 

 and explore new and distant regions. In 

 this form the animal comes abroad during or 

 soon after the first tornado, which at the 

 latter end of the dry season proclaims the 

 approach of the ensuing rains, and seldom 

 waits for a second or third shower, if the 

 first, as is generally the case, happens in the 

 night and brings much wet after it. The 

 numbers that are to be found next morning 

 all over the surface of the earth, but particu- 

 larly on the water, is astonishing ; for their 

 wings are only calculated to carry them a 

 few hours ; and after the rising of the sun not 

 one in a thousand is to be found with four 

 wings, unless the morning continues rainy, 

 when here and there a solitary being is seen 

 winging its way from one place to another, 

 as if solicitous only to avoid its numerous 

 enemies, particularly various species of ants, 

 which are hunting on every spray, on every 

 leaf, and in every possible place, for this un- 

 happy race, of which probably not a pair in 

 many millions get into a place of safety, 

 fulfil the first law of nature, and lay the 

 foundation of a new community Not only 

 do ants, birds, and reptiles destroy them, but 

 even the inhabitants of the country eagerly 

 seek after these wingless creatures and devour 

 them with the greatest avidity. It is, indeed, 

 wonderful that a pair should ever escape so 

 many dangers and get into a place of secu- 

 rity. Some, however, are so fortunate ; and 

 being found by some of the labouring insects 

 that are continually running about the 

 surface of the ground under their covered 

 galleries, are elected kings and queens of new 

 states ; all those which are not so elected and 

 preserved certainly perish, and most pro- 

 bably in the course of the following day. 

 The manner in which these labourers protect 



the happy pair from their innumerable ene- 

 mies, not only on the day of the massacre of 

 almost all their race, but for a long time 

 afterwards, seems to justify the use of the 

 term election. The little industrious crea- 

 tures immediately enclose them in a small 

 chamber of clay suitable to their size, into 

 which at first they leave but one small 

 entrance, large enough for themselves and 

 the soldiers to go in and out, but much too 

 small for either of the royal pair to make use 

 of ; and when necessity obliges them to make 

 more entrances, they are never larger : so 

 that, of course, the voluntary subjects charge 

 themselves with the task of providing for 

 the offspring of their sovereigns, as well as to 

 work and fight for them, until they shall 

 have raised a progeny capable at least of 

 dividing the task with them. 



About this time a most extraordinary 

 change begins to take place in the queen, to 

 which we have nothing similar, except in the 

 Jigger of the West Indies (Pulex penetrans 

 of Linnaeus), and in the different species of 

 Coccus. The abdomen of this female begins 

 gradually to extend and enlarge to such an 

 enormous size, that in an old queen it will 

 increase so as to become fifteen hundred or 

 two thousand times the bulk of the rest of 

 her body.and twenty or thirty thousand times 

 the bulk of a labourer ! The skin between 

 the segments of the abdomen extends in every 

 direction ; and at last the segments are re- 

 moved to half an inch distance from each 

 other, although at first the length of the whole 

 abdomen is riot half an inch. They preserve 

 their dark brown colour, and the upper part 

 of the abdomen is marked with a regular 

 series of brown bars throughout its entire 

 length, while the intervals between them are 

 covered with a thin, delicate, transparent 

 skin, and appear of a fine cream colour, a 

 little shaded by the dark colour of the in- 

 testines and watery fluid een here and there 

 beneath. The animal is supposed to be 

 upwards of two years old when the abdomen 

 is increased to three inches in length ; and 

 they are sometimes found nearly twice that 

 size. The abdomen is now of an irregular 

 oblong shape, being contracted by the muscles 

 of every segment, and is become one vast 

 matrix full of eggs, whichmake long circum- 

 volutions through an immense number of 

 very minute vessels that circulate round the 

 inside in a serpentine manner, which would 

 exercise the ingenuity of a skilful anatomist 

 to dissect and develope. This singular 

 matrix is not more remarkable for its amaz- 

 ing extension and size, than for its peristaltic 

 motion, which resembles the undulation of 

 waves, and continues incessantly without 

 any apparent effort of the animal ; so that 

 one part or other is alternately rising and 

 falling in perpetual succession, and the 

 matrix seems never at rest, but is always 

 protruding eggs, to the numbe r of sixty in a 

 minute in old queens, or eighty thousand and 

 upwards in one day of twenty-four hours. 

 These eggs are instantly taken from the body 

 of the queen by her attendants (of whom 

 there always are, in the royal chamber, and 

 galleries adjacent, a sufficient number in 

 waiting), and carried to the nurseries, some 



