APPENDIX. 



ON THE INSTINCTS OF SOCIAL INSECTS. 



A GENERAL account has been elsewhere given (AniM. PHYSIOL., 

 Chap. XIV.) of the habits and instincts of the Hive Bee ; and a 

 similar sketch will be here given of the History of the Termites 

 or White Ants, and of that of the Common Ants. 



The Termites, or White Ants, belong to the Order Neuroptera 

 ( 740) ; and are the only true social insects contained in that 

 group. Next to the Locusts, they may be reckoned the most 

 destructive Insects known to Man ; since not only articles of 

 food, but clothing, fences, trees, and even houses, fall before their 

 devouring jaws. As they are confined, with but few exceptions, 

 to tropical climates, we are only acquainted with their ravages 

 by the reports of travellers who have visited those regions ; 

 but these reports are such as we may fully trust to, and even 

 in France, one species has lately done a great deal of damage at 

 Rochelle and other places. The Termites live in immense com- 

 munities, consisting of kings and queens, soldiers and labourers. 

 The kings and queens are perfect insects, male and female ; and 

 their office is solely to increase their kind. The soldiers appear 

 to be the pupce, stopped in their development, so as never to 

 possess wings or to acquire the reproductive organs ; it is their 

 office to attack every object or living thing, that in anyway injures 

 or endangers the safety of the nest ; and this duty they perform 

 with the most reckless bravery, the labourers retiring within the 

 nest during the time of danger. The labourers are probably to 

 be regarded as the larvce, alike checked in their development ; 

 their offices are manifold, their duty being to take the eggs 

 from the queen as fast as she lays them, to convey them to the 

 nurseries and to tend them until hatched, and to feed the young, 

 store provisions, build the nest, repair damages, and perform every 

 kind of labour requisite for the good of the community. 



The nests of the Termites are so numerous all over the island 

 of Bananas and the adjacent Continent of Africa, that it is scarcely 



