INSEGTA. 427 



with safety (Termesfatalis L., Termes bellicosus SMEATHM.) Below, 

 in the middle of the building, is the residence of the female (mon- 

 strous is the distension of the abdomen in a pregnant female which 

 lays perhaps 80,000 eggs) ; round about this residence are cells for 

 the eggs, magazines for food, &c., all orderly arranged. The upper- 

 most part of the hill-like dwelling is massive, to give more firm- 

 ness, and to guard the family from the influence of weather and the 

 attacks of foes. It is generally supposed that the labour of building 

 in these societies is performed by the larvse, but perhaps it is by the 

 sexless individuals who have not got their wings ; they have no 

 eyes. There are still other wingless individuals, also without eyes, 

 but with larger jaws ; these are commonly called soldiers, because 

 they ward off attacks and always stand at guard. When these 

 insects attain their perfect state they leave the dwelling at night- 

 time ; on the day following their dried wings fall off, and they are 

 in great part eaten up by birds, lizards, and even by the negroes. 

 A fertilised female is borne off by the larvse to a dwelling, and there 

 she lays her eggs. According to SMEATHMAN the workers would 

 seem to carry off a male and a female with them, in order to shut 

 them up and feed them for copulation. 



Comp. SMEATHMAN in Philosophical Transactions, Vol. LXXI. 1781. The 

 figures are copied in part by BLUMENBACH in Abbildungen naturhistoris- 

 cher Gegenstande, Nos. 9, 10. 



Add genus Embia LATR. Head broader than thorax. Wings 

 not longer than body. Tarsi triarticulate. 



ORDER X. Hemiptera. 



Hexapod Insects, with four wings, all membranous or anterior 

 poriaceous at base, thicker. Mouth with articulate rostrum (labium), 

 Lvhicli ensheathes setse (mandibles and maxilla) ; palps none. Me- 

 bamorphosis, with few exceptions, incomplete. 



Half-winged (Hemiptera from tjfjLurw half, and irrepov). This 

 order originated indeed with LINNAEUS, but is now limited differently, 

 since the Orthoptera have been separated from it as a distinct order. 

 EABRICIUS, who also placed the flea here, named the half-winged 

 insects Rkyngota, which name BURMEISTER properly changed into 

 Rhyncohta. On this order, amongst other works, we notice : 



J. C. FABRICII Sy sterna Rhynyotorum. Bruiisvigse, 1803, 8vo; 

 Hist. nat. des Insectes Hemipteres, par C. J. B. AMYOT et AUDINET 



