312 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



cognised to be that of white ants ; yet he was surprised at seeing none 

 of their hills or covered ways. Following the noise, to his great astonish- 

 ment and delight he saw an army of these creatures emerging from a hole 

 in the ground ; their number was prodigious, and they marched with the 

 utmost celerity. When they had proceeded about a yard they divided 

 into two columns, chiefly composed of labourers, about fifteen abreast, 

 following each other in close order, and going straight forward. Here and 

 there was seen a soldier, carrying his vast head with apparent difficulty, 

 and looking like an ox in a flock of sheep, who marched on in the same 

 manner. At the distance of a foot or two from the columns many other 

 soldiers were to be seen, standing still or pacing about as if upon the look- 

 out, lest some enemy should suddenly surprise their unwarlike comrades ; 

 other soldiers, which was the most extraordinary and amusing part of 

 the scene, having mounted some plants and placed themselves on the 

 points of their leaves, elevated from ten to fifteen inches from the ground, 

 hung over the army marching below, and by striking their forceps upon 

 the leaf, produced at intervals the noise before mentioned. To this signal 

 the whole army returned a hiss, and obeyed it by increasing their pace. 

 The soldiers at these signal stations sat quite still during the intervals of 

 silence, except now and then making a slight turn of the head, and seemed 

 as solicitous to keep their posts as regular sentinels. The two columns of 

 this army united after continuing separate for twelve or fifteen paces, 

 having in no part been above three yards asunder, and then descended 

 into the earth by two or three holes. Mr. Smeathman continued watch- 

 ing them for above an hour, during which time their numbers appeared 

 neither to increase nor diminish : the soldiers, however, who quitted the 

 line of march and acted as sentinels, became much more numerous before 

 he quitted the spot. The larvae and neuters of this species are furnished 

 with eyes. 



The societies of Termes lucifugus, discovered by Latreille at Bordeaux, 

 are very numerous ; 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 the nearest the bark, or the alburnum, with- 

 out attacking 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. These insects seem to be 

 furnished with an acid of a very penetrating odour, which perhaps is 

 useful to them for softening the wood. 1 The soldiers in these societies are 

 as about one to twenty-five of the labourers. 2 The anonymous author of 

 the observations on the Termites of Ceylon seems to have discovered a 

 sentry-box in his nests. " I found," says he, " in a very small cell in the 

 middle of the solid mass (a cell about half an inch in height, and very nar- 

 row), a larva with an enormous head. Two of these individuals were in 

 the same cell : one of the two seemed placed as sentinel at the entrance 

 of the cell. I amused myself by forcing the door two or three times : 

 the sentinel immediately appeared, and only retreated when the door was 

 on the point to be stopped up, which was done in three minutes by the 

 labourers." 



I hope this account has reconciled you in some degree to the destruc- 

 l Latr. Hist. Nat. xiii. 64. 2 J\T j^ ctt d'Hist. Nat. xxii. 57, 58. 



