WARS OP WHITE ANTS. 331 



attack: one seizes by a leg, another by a wing 1 , or 

 perhaps there are two on each side confining or 

 pulling its limbs while they maul and pummel its 

 chest or bite its head. This maltreatment obliges it 

 to unfold its tongue and disgorge its honey, which 

 the robbers eagerly lap till they are satisfied, and 

 then let their prisoner go *. 



Wasps are also audacious robbers of bee-hives, 

 and one wasp is said to be a match for three bees. 

 This is partly owing to their reckless temerity or 

 courage, for they will boldly encounter evident 

 danger, and one wasp will fearlessly oppose a whole 

 host of bees to filch a bellyful of honey f. 



WHITE ANTS, OR TERMITES. 



As the white ants (Termites) have a portion of 

 their community expressly set apart for the duties of 

 war, they may be expected to exhibit the most per- 

 fect form of insect tactics ; and such, indeed, is the 

 fact, though the details hitherto published by those 

 who have had an opportunity of observing them are 

 not so particular respecting many points as we could 

 have wished. Upon making a breach in one of 

 their castles J a general alarm is excited amongst all 

 ranks of the inhabitants ; but the labourers, pre- 

 viously the most conspicuous, being incapable of 

 fighting, immediately betake themselves to the inte- 

 rior, while the soldiers take their places. Imme- 

 diately upon striking the wall, a soldier, probably a 

 sentinel, starts out, walks rapidly over the breach to 

 reconnoitre, and after ascertaining the nature of the 

 danger threatened, retires to give the alarm. Upon 

 this two or three more hurry out, and the intelligence 

 spreading, the breach is soon filled with soldiers 



* Kirby and Spence, ii.208. f Keys, p. 180. 



J See Insect Architecture, p. 300. 



