WHITE ANT. 475 



are incapable of any thing but piercing or wounding ; for which 

 purposes they are very effectual, being as hard as a crab's claw, 

 and placed in a strong horny head, which is of a nut-brown 

 colour, and larger than all the rest of the body together, which 

 seems to labour under great difficulty in carrying it; on which 

 account perhaps the animal is incapable of climbing up perpendu 

 cular surfaces. The'third order, or the insect in its perfect state, 

 varies its form still more than ever. The head, thorax, and abdo 

 men, differ almost entirely from the same parts in the labourers 

 and soldiers ; and, besides this, the animal is now furnished with 

 four fine, large, brownish, transparent wings, with which it is at 

 the time of emigration to wing its way in search of a new settle- 

 ment. We may open twenty nests without finding one winged 

 insect, for those are to be found only just before the commence- 

 ment of the rainy season, when they undergo the last change, 

 which is preparative to their colonization. 



In the winged state, they have also much altered their size as 

 well as form. Their bodies now measure between six and seven 

 tenths of an inch in length, and their wings above two inches and 

 a half from tip to tip, and they are equal in bulk to about thirty- 

 labourers, or two soldiers. They are now also furnished with two 

 large eyes, placed on each side of the head, and very conspicuous: 

 if they have any before, they are not easily to be distinguished. 

 Probably in the two first states, their eyes, if they have any, may- 

 be small, like those of moles ; for as they live, like these animals, 

 always under ground, they have as little occasion for these organs, 

 and it is not to be wondered at that we do not discover them ; but 

 the case is much altered when they arrive at the winged state, in 

 which they are to roam, though but for a few hours, through the 

 wide air, and explore new and distant regions. In this form the 

 animal comes abroad during, or soon after, the first tornado, 

 which, at the latter end of the dry season, proclaims the approach 

 of the ensuing rains ; and seldom waits for a second, or third 

 shower, if the first, as is generally the case, happens hi the night, 

 and brings much wet after it. 



The quantities that are to be found the next morning all over 

 the surface of the earth, but particularly on the waters, are as- 

 tonishing ; for their wings are only calculated to carry them a few 

 hours, and after the rising of the sun not one in a thousand is to 



