GIG NEUROPTERA. 



immense number of individuals. In the warmer regions, the 

 ravages of some species are often fearfully great. A species 

 discovered by Latreille at Bordeaux, (Fr.,) frequently attack the 

 wood work of houses, in which they form innumerable galleries, 

 all leading to a central point. In building, they avoid piercing 

 the surface of the wood-work ; and hence it appears sound, when 

 the slightest touch is sometimes sufficient to cause it to fall to 

 pieces. 



One of the largest and best known species is the Termes 'belli- 

 cosus, or Warlike Ant, (see Chart,) found on the coast of Africa. 

 These Ants build conical nests or edifices, sometimes of enor- 

 mous size, nearly as hard as stone, and very commonly twelve 

 feet in height, (see Chart.) They are often quite numerous, ap- 

 pearing almost like huts of savages.; and Mr. Cummings says, 

 " are of the greatest service to the hunter, enabling him to con- 

 ceal himself with facility on the otherwise open plain." 



The male and female, or King and Queen, have their royal 

 chamber near the center of the hillock, and never leave it. 

 They are both perfect insects, but the wings which they once 

 had are lost soon after their admission to their place of abode. 

 To the almost numberless eggs dropped by the Queen-mother, 

 we have already referred. In times of scarcity, the Hottentots 

 feast upon these eggs, which they call rice, on account of their 

 resemblance to that grain. They usually wash them, and cook 

 them with a small quantity of water, declaring that they are 

 savory and nourishing. When they find out a place where the 

 nests are numerous, it is said they soon become fat from eating 

 the eggs, even when previously much reduced by hunger. 

 "Sometimes they will get half a bushel out of a single nest." 



The larvae, in their full grown state, are perhaps a quarter of 

 an inch in length. They are far the most numerous and the 

 workers of the colony, building, foraging and nursing. The 

 soldiers or fighters are comparatively few, not more than one to 

 a hundred of laborers ; but they are many times larger, and 

 armed with sharper and more formidable jaws. They appear 

 as defenders when the nest is assailed, and will even attack the 

 assailants, biting with considerable force. The species T.fron- 

 tails, of South America, works galleries in logs and stumps of 

 trees, and in the ground also, plastering them with a hard 

 mixture of clay. 



