THE WHITE ANTS. 



feeding and tending them until they have attained sufficient 

 growth to provide for themselves. 



9. The soldiers, of whom, as already observed, there is not more 

 than one to every hundred workers, are distinguished by their 

 long and large heads, armed with long pointed mandibles. Their 

 duty, as their title implies, is confined to the defence of the society 

 and of their common habitation, when attacked by enemies. 



10. The nymphs differ so little from the workers, that they 

 would be confounded with them, but that they have the rudi- 

 ments of wings, or, more strictly speaking, wings already formed, 

 folded up in wing cases. These escaped the notice of the earliest 

 observers, having been distinguished by Latreille. 



11. Naturalists are not agreed as to the physiological character 

 of these three classes of the society. Some consider the workers 

 as the Iarva3 which, at a -certain advanced period of their growth, 

 are metamorphosed into the nymphs, which themselves finally pass 

 into the state of the perfect winged insect. 



According to Kirby, the soldiers correspond to the neuters in 

 other societies of insects. As he observes, however, they differ 

 from the neuters of the societies of Hymenoptera, which are a sort 

 of sterile females. He conjectures that the soldiers may be the 

 larva) which are finally transformed into the perfect male insect. 

 Great differences of opinion, however, prevail on this subject among 

 entomologists. 



For our present purpose, these doubtful questions, whatever 

 interest they may have for naturalists, are altogether unimportant. 

 What we desire at present to direct attention to, is the curious 

 manners and habits of these insects, which have been ascertained 

 by many eminent naturalists, and have been described with great 

 minuteness by Smeathnaan in the seventy-first volume of the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions, from whose memoir we shall here borrow 

 largely. 



According to Smeathman, the following is the manner in which 

 the establishment of each colony takes place. 



12. The pupa3 or nymphs, which compose, as has been stated, 

 part of a society, are transformed into the perfect insect, their 

 wings being fully developed and liberated from the wing cases 

 soon after the first tornado, which takes place at the close of the 

 dry season, and harbingers the periodical rains. The insects, thus 

 perfected, issue forth from their habitation in the evening, in 

 numbers literally countless, swarming after the manner of bees. 

 Borne upon their ample wings, and transported by the wind, they 

 fil! the air, entering houses, extinguishing lights, and being some- 

 tii les driven on board ships which happen to be near the shore. 

 The next morning they are seen covering the surface of the earth 



100 



