lg8 NATURAL HISTORY. 



stumps and the roots of trees, or occasionally extending its ravages into 

 the sills of houses, where it eats out all tl e* inter 4 * ••>% leaving but a thin, 

 external shell, so that wlr a to all appearance the ti her remains solid it 

 is really utterly destroyed. With us, however, the damage they do is tri- 

 fling in comparison with what they occasion in the tropics. Every book of 



Fig. 174. — Female white ant (Termes), with her abdomen distended with eggs. 



travel in the warmer climes tells of the annoyance they produce, and really 

 wonderful stories are told of their engineering abilities. Again and again 

 has it been related that they will bore up through the floor of a house into 

 the leg of a chair or a table, and then completely riddle the furniture by 

 gnawing out the whole insides ; and all the while the occupants of the 

 dwelling have not the slightest suspicion of their presence, and only learn 

 of the damage when on attempting to use the article it tumbles to pieces 

 in their hands. 



Smeathman describes the workings of an African species in the follow- 

 ing language : " They sometimes, in carrying on this business, find, I will 

 not pretend to say how, that the post has some weight to support, and 

 then if it is a convenient track to the roof, or is itself a kind of wood agree- 

 able to them, they bring their mortar and fill all or most of the cavities, 

 leaving the necessary roads through it, and as fast as they take away the 

 wood, replace the vacancy with that material, which being worked together 

 by them closer than human strength or art could ram it, when the house is 

 pulled to pieces, in order to examine if any of the posts are fit to be used 

 again, those of the softer kinds are often found reduced almost to a shell, and 

 all, or a greater part, transformed from wood to clay, as solid and as hard 

 as many kinds of freestone used for building in England. It is much the 

 same when the Termites bellicosi get into a chest or trunk containing 

 cloths or other things ; if the weight above is great, or they are afraid of 

 ants or other enemies, and have time, they carry their pipes through and 

 replace a great part with clay, running their galleries in various direc- 

 tions. . . . These insects are not less expeditious in destroying the shelves; 

 wainscoting, and other fixtures of a house, than the house itself. They are 

 forever piercing and boring in all directions, and sometimes go out of the 



