476 INSECTS. 



be found with four wings, unless the morning continues rainy, 

 when here and there a solitary being is seen winging its way from 

 one place to another, as if solicitous only to avoid its numerous 

 enemies ; particularly various species of ants which are hunting on 

 every spray, on every leaf, and in every possible place, for this 

 unhappy race, of which probably not a pair in many millions get 

 into a place of safety, fulfil the first law of nature, and lay the 

 foundation of a new community. 



The termites arborum, those which build in trees, frequently 

 establish their nests within the roofs and other parts of houses, to 

 which they do considerable damage, if not timely extirpated. 

 The large species are not only much the most destructive, but 

 more difficult to be guarded against ; since they make their ap- 

 proaches chiefly under ground, descending below the foundations 

 of houses and stores, at several feet from the surface, and rising 

 again either in the floors, or entering at the bottoms of the posts, 

 of which the sides of the buildings are composed, bore quite 

 through them, following the course of the fibres to the top, or 

 making lateral perforations and cavities here and there as they 

 proceed. 



While some are employed in gutting the posts, others ascend 

 from them, entering a rafter, or some other part of the roof. If 

 they once find the thatch, which seems to be a favourite food, they 

 soon bring up wet clay, and build their pipes or galleries through 

 the roof in various directions, as long as it will support them : 

 sometimes eating the palm-tree leaves and branches of which it is 

 composed ; and, perhaps (for variety seems very pleasing to them) 

 the rattan, or other running plant, which is used as a cord to tie 

 the various parts of the roof together, and that to the posts which 

 support it; thus, with the assistance of the rats, who during the 

 rainy season are apt to shelter themselves there, and to burrow 

 through it, they very soon ruin the house, by weakening the fasten- 

 ings, and exposing it to the wet. in the mean time the posts will 

 be perforated in every direction, as full of holes as that timber in 

 the bottoms of ships which has been bored by the worms ; the 

 fibres and knotty parts, which are the hardest, being left to the 

 last. 



They sometimes, in carrying on this business, seem to find that 

 the post has some weight to support ; and then, if it is a conve. 



