CHAPTER XVIII 



SOME INSECTS MET BY THE WAY 



INSECTS play a large part in the economic 

 life of Angola, and their influence unfortu- 

 nately is for evil rather than good. 



Though innumerable bees are a source of 

 wealth to the colony, the mosquito and tsetse fly 

 bring much sickness to man and beast in certain 

 districts, and the destructive white ant is ubiquitous. 



These termites, which are not ants at all 

 except in habits, arc amazingly abundant in the 

 country, where their mushroom-shaped and pil- 

 lared ant-hills sometimes appear in such numbers 

 as to resemble vast graveyards. Some of the ant- 

 hills are of great height and age, and may be 

 inhabited by other kinds of ants, or by reptiles, 

 rats, and even snakes ; all of which are probably 

 unwelcome, and lodgers. It is truly astonishing 

 that these minute, soft-bodied insects can build 

 such large houses with iron hard walls, but the very 

 fragility of the insect compels such protection, and 

 their roads to work and working galleries are alike 

 covered in with earth cemented with a juice 

 which they secrete. 



Like ants and bees, these termites have males, 



females, and neuters in the nest ; soldiers, queens, 



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