CHAP. X. WHITE ANTS OF AFRICA. 299 



tial and imperfect. The traveller who visits the pes- 

 tilential regions of Western Africa, will be struck by 

 the appearance of clusters of conical huts, generally 

 about twelve feet high, rising from the plain, and 

 covered with mud: these, he will conclude, are the 

 hamlets of the negroes ; but they are the dwellings 

 of a far more industrious race, they are the cities of 

 the white ant, fabricated and inhabited by them, and 

 constructed, internally, with a knowledge of architecture 

 unknown to the simple negro ; and containing an im- 

 mense population, divided into those distinct grades of 

 society which, in human affairs, have been found most 

 conducive to the general good. Upon the astonishing 

 structure of these dwellings we cannot, at present, 

 dilate. But their inhabitants are no less extraordinary. 

 It should be previously observed, however, that the 

 species under consideration is named, by Smeathman, 

 Termes bellicosus, a designation which, by every rule 

 of justice and scientific nomenclature, should be re- 

 tained ; seeing that Linnaeus applied that of fatalis 

 to two, if not three, different species. The community 

 is divided, according to Smeathman, into three distinct 

 orders; 1. the labourers; 2. the soldiers; and, 3. 

 the perfect insects. Messrs. Kirby and Spence, on the 

 contrary, make these three into five. We shall retain 

 this latter arrangement, more for the sake of clearness, 

 than as establishing that marked distinction which be- 

 longs to Mr. Smeathman's view ; whose three orders 

 perform three different offices in the community. First, 

 as being the most numerous, we place the labourers, or 

 workers, upon whom devolve the erection and re- 

 pairing of the buildings, the collecting of provisions, 

 the care of conveying the eggs to the nurseries, feeding 

 the young progeny, and attending to all the wants of 

 the regal pair. These, in scientific language, are the 

 larva, corresponding in rank to the neuters among 

 bees : they are immediately known by their small size, 

 round heads, and short jaws. Next to them are the 

 nymphs or pupce, differing only fjartn" the former iiv p 



7 OP TFIK 



