CHAP. X. SOCIETIES OF WHITE ANTS. 297 



home. Upon any sudden alarm, they retreat to them 

 for safety; and also when they cast their skins. In the 

 winter they are wholly confined to them, emerging 

 again in the spring; hut in May and June they entirely 

 desert them, and, losing all their love for society, 

 live in solitude till they become pupae, which takes 

 place in about a month."* De Geer mentions the 

 caterpillars of a saw-fly, which "join in making a com- 

 mon nest by uniting leaves together by silken threads ; 

 each, however, spins a tube, of the same material, for 

 its own private apartment, in which it glides backward 

 and forward upon its back." f Several of the British 

 butterflies spend the early period of their larva state 

 much in the same manner. The young of the peacock 

 (Pavo lo Fab.), when a few days old, inclose themselves 

 in a fine web, drawing, at the same time, the leaves 

 to cover them, that they may still receive the benefit of 

 their shade. They change their skins frequently, 

 and on these occasions desert their former tent, and 

 construct a new one in another part of the plant : this 

 continues until they are clothed in their last skin, when 

 the society is dissolved by mutual consent, and each 

 individual separates and feeds by itself. The great and 

 the small tortoiseshell butterflies live much in the same 

 manner. And, not to multiply instances, the Papilio 

 cinxia, in its larva state, lives in societies of about a 

 hundred, within a pyramidal tent, containing several 

 apartments of their own spinning. We now proceed 

 to the perfect societies of insects. 



(306.) 2. The white ants, generally, are chiefly found 

 in the tropical latitudes of the Old and the New World ; 

 in both of which they live in vast communities, des- 

 tined, by an all-wise Providence, to accelerate the de- 

 struction of dead vegetable matter, so abundant in 

 climates where vegetation is so rapid and luxuriant. 

 In Europe, it appears, two species have been found, 

 one of which we met 'with in the island of Sicily. 

 " The great end of the societies of insects,," it has been 



* Int. to Ent. vol. ii. p. 21. t Id - ibid 



