White Ants. 327 



to have more the habits of the jet-ant, described page 301, 

 than their congeners of the tropics. They live in the 

 interior of the trunks of trees, the wood of which they eat, 

 and form their habitations of the galleries which they thus 

 excavate. M. Latreille says they appear to be furnished 

 with an acid for the purpose of softening the wood, the odour 

 of which is exceedingly pungent. They prefer the part of 

 the wood nearest to the bark, which they are careful not to 

 injure, as it affords them protection. All the walls of their 

 galleries are moistened with small globules of a gelatinous 

 substance, similar to gum Arabic. They are chiefly to be 

 found in the trunks of oak and pine trees, and are very 

 numerous.* 



Another of the species (Termes arborum), described by 

 Smeathman, builds a nest on the exterior of trees, altogether 

 different from any of the preceding. These are of a spheri- 

 cal or oval shape, occupying the arm or branch of a tree 

 sometimes from seventy to eighty feet from the ground, and 

 as large, in a few instances, as a sugar-cask. The composi- 

 tion used for a building material is apparently similar to 

 that used by the warriors for constructing their nurseries, 

 being the gnawings of wood in very small particles, kneaded 

 into a paste with some species of cement or glue, procured, 

 as Smeathman supposes, partly from gummiferous trees, and 

 partly from themselves ; but it is more probable, we think, 

 that it is wholly secreted, like the wax of bees, by the insects 

 themselves. With this cement, whatever may be its compo- 

 sition, they construct their cells, in which there is nothing 

 very wonderful except their great numbers. They are very 

 firmly built, and so strongly attached to the trees, that they 

 will resist the most violent tornado. It is impossible, indeed, 

 to detach them, except by cutting them in pieces, or sawing 

 off the branch, which is frequently done to procure the 

 insects for young turkeys. (See engraving, p. 324, for a 

 figure of this nest.) 



This species very often, instead of selecting the bough of a 

 tree, builds in the roof or wall of a house, and unless 

 * Latreille, Hist. Nat. Geuerale, torn. xiii. p. 64. 



