164 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



animals are known to attack living trees ; but not, 

 I apprehend, before symptoms of mortification have 

 appeared at the roots, since it is evident, as is before 

 observed, that these insects are intended, in the order 

 of nature, to hasten the dissolution of such trees and 

 vegetables as have arrived at their greatest maturity 

 and perfection, and which would, by a tedious decay, 

 serve only to encumber the face of the earth. This 

 purpose they answer so effectually, that nothing pe- 

 rishable escapes them, and it is almost impossible to 

 leave any thing penetrable upon the ground a long 

 time in safety ; for the odds are, put it where you will 

 abroad, they will find it out before the following morn- 

 ing, and its destruction follows very soon, of course. 

 In consequence of this disposition, the woods never 

 remain long encumbered with the fallen trunks of 

 trees or their branches ; and thus it is, as I have be- 

 fore observed, the total destruction of deserted towns 

 is so effectually completed, that in two or three years 

 a thick wood fills the space ; and unless iron-wood 

 posts have been made use of, not the least vestige of 

 a house is to be discovered *." 



Teak-wood (Tectonia grandis) is the only wood 

 which they will not touch, probably on account of some 

 essential oil in it disagreeable to their taste ; for they 

 will eat lignum vita?, which is considerably harder f. 



Kaempfer gives a similar account of the white-ants 

 in Japan. He observed, upon rising one morning, 

 that a gallery, of the thickness of his finger, had been 

 formed across his table ; and found, upon further ex- 

 amination, that the insects had bored a passage up 

 one foot of the table, run the gallery across it, and 

 then pierced down another foot to the floor; all of 

 which had been effected during the few hours that he 

 had been asleep J. 



* Smeathman, Phil. Trans. 1781, p. 183. 

 f Kirby and Spence, Intr. i. 243. J Japan, ii. 127. 



