CHAP. X. EUROPEAN WHITE ANTS. 311 



not taken root and vegetated, it becomes their business 

 to destroy it ; if the bark is good and sound,, in order 

 to preserve it so, they enter at the bottom, leaving all 

 the external part as a support to their own operations, 

 so that it eventually becomes as thin as paper, and 

 is destroyed by the first wind that blows. If, on the 

 contrary, their instinct teaches them that the bark is 

 too weak to be trusted while they are devouring the 

 inside, they proceed immediately to strengthen it with 

 a stucco of their mortar, giving it the appearance of 

 being covered with a coat of dried mud. Under this 

 cover they work, leaving no more of the stick and bark 

 than is barely able to support it ; frequently, indeed, 

 devouring every particle, so that, upon being touched 

 by your walking-stick, a thick stake apparently, 

 strong enough to require a hatchet falls into dust at 

 your feet, and disappears like a shadow.* 



(315.) The European white ants require much inves- 

 tigation ; Latreille discovered one species, the Termes 

 lucifagus, at Bordeaux, in considerable numbers ; 

 but instead of erecting artificial nests, they make their 

 lodgment in the trunks of pines and oaks, where the 

 branches diverge from the tree. They eat the wood 

 nearest the bark, or the alburnum, without attack- 

 ing the interior, and bore a vast number of holes and 

 irregular galleries. That part of the wood appears 

 moist, and is covered with little gelatinous particles, 

 not unlike gum arabic : the proportion of soldiers is 

 about one to every twenty-five of the labourers. f In 

 the South of Europe, particularly in the island of Sicily, 

 we discovered, many years ago, another species, which 

 we have named Termes Siculus, whose habits at once 

 point it out as distinct from the above. It is only 

 found in houses, and constructs its nests, like some of 

 those before mentioned, in trunks, bales, and other 

 similar articles; sometimes it is found in the rafters 

 and posts of the house, which it ultimately destroys : 

 it is the more dangerous to the inhabitants, as it makes 



* Phil. Trans. t Int. to Ent. voL ii. p. 43. 



