NEUEOPTEEA. 411 



Not only can many men mount on them without shaking them, 

 but buffaloes establish themselves upon them as watch-towers, 

 from which they can see over the high grass which covers the 

 plain, if the lion or the panther is threatening them. These 

 edifices are hollow ; but their sides are from fifteen to twenty inches 

 thick, and are as hard as a rock. They are hollowed out into 

 galleries which connect them with the underground dwelling. 

 Under the dome is a pretty large vacant space, a sort of top story 

 or attic occupying one-third of the total height, and which keeps 

 up in the edifice a more uniform temperature than if all the block 

 had been filled up. On a level with the ground is the royal cell, 

 oblong, with a flat floor and a rounded ceiling, and pierced with 

 round windows. All round are distributed the offices ; they are 

 rooms also with rounded and vaulted ceilings, communicating with 

 each other by corridors. On the sides rise the magazines, with 

 their backs placed against the walls of the house ; they are filled 

 with gums and with vegetable juices solidified and in powder. On 

 the ceiling of the royal chamber rise pillars of about two feet in 

 height, which support the egg rooms. These are little cells with 

 partitions of sawdust stuck together with gum, which separate at 

 the opening the large chambers from the clay halls. Placed between 

 the attics and the great nave surmounting the royal hall, the 

 nursery is in the most desirable position possible for uniformity of 

 temperature and for ventilation. 



The royal cell encloses an unique couple, objects of the most 

 assiduous attentions, but kept in closest captivity, for the doors are 

 too narrow to afford a passage to the monstrous queen, and even 

 to the male, who keeps generally crouching by her side. Thousands 

 of servants busy themselves round the mother ; they feed her and 

 carry away, night and day, the myriads of eggs which she lays. 

 The eggs are placed in the egg houses, where they give birth to 

 white larvae, resembling the workers, which nourish themselves at 

 first on a sort of mouldy fungus which grows on the partitions of 

 their cells. They then become pupae, then neuters or males and 

 females, the last two being provided with wings. 



On a stormy evening the males and females come out of their 

 nest by millions to couple in the air ; then immediately afterwards 

 they fall to the ground and lose their wings, when they become an 



