326 



Insect Architechire. 



be seen in the thick woods at the foot of a tree. They are 

 so very strongly built, that in case of violence, they will 

 sooner tear up the gravel and solid heart of their foundation 

 than break in the middle. When any of them happen to be 

 thus thrown down, the insects do not abandon them ; but, 

 using their overturned column as a basis, they run up another 

 perpendicularly from it to the usual height, fastening the 

 under part at the same time to the ground, to render it the 

 more secure. 



The interior of a turret is pretty equally divided into in- 

 numerable cells, irregular in shape, but usually more or 



Turret Nests of White Ants. One nest is represented cut through, with the upper 

 part lying on the ground. 



less angular, generally quadrangular or pentagonal, though 

 the angles are not well defined. Each shell has at least 

 two entrances; but there are no galleries, arches, nor 

 wooden nurseries, as in the nests of the warrior (T. bellico- 

 sus). The two species which build turret nests are very 

 different in size, and the dimensions of the nests differ in 

 proportion. 



THE WHITE ANTS OF TREES. 



Latreille's species of white ant (Termes lucifugus, Rossi), 

 formerly mentioned as found in the south of Europe, appear 



