XXVII 



TERMITES ( WHITE ANTS) 



EVERY Englishman who visits Tropical Africa for the 

 first time has his attention arrested by the large mounds 

 formed by the termites. These large and curious 

 structures are almost as constant features in an African 

 landscape as cottages in the rural parts of the British 

 Isles. Termites are often called white ants, but 

 Smeathman, who wrote an interesting account of their 

 natural history in 1781, distinctly mentions that 

 although these insects live in communities, construct 

 extraordinary nests, and are, like ants, omnivorous, they 

 are by no means the same kind of insects. There are 

 scarcely any two divisions of insects more different 

 than termites and ants. 



Termites live in communities consisting of enormous 

 numbers of individuals ; among them there are several 

 forms, such as workers, soldiers, and winged males and 

 females. The winged individuals are only present in 

 the nest for a few days and then leave in swarms. In 

 addition, there are the king and queen, which also lack 

 wings, and therefore cannot leave the nest ; the queen is 

 enclosed in a cell. The continuance of the community 

 depends entirely on the king and queen ; and if the queen 

 dies the community perishes. The queen has a remark- 

 able appearance, for the abdomen, in consequence of the 

 formation of the eggs within it, grows enormously, and 

 these are discharged in such large quantities that 



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