284 ANTS AND TERMITES 



others (T, destructor arborum) build on trees, often at a consider- 

 able height above the ground. These sylvan abodes are fre- 

 quently the size of a hogshead, and are more generally found in 

 the new world. 



The clay-built citadels or domes of the Termes bellicosus, a 

 common species on the West Coast of Africa, attain a height of 

 twelve feet, and are constructed with such strength that the 

 traveller often ascends them to have an uninterrupted view of the 

 grassy plain around. Only the under part of the mound is in- 

 habited by the white ants, the upper portion serving principally 

 as a defence from the weather, and to keep up in the lower part 

 the warmth and moisture necessary to the hatching of the eggs 

 and cherishing of the young ones. In the centre, and almost on 

 a level with the ground, is placed the sanctuary of the whole 

 community — the large cell, where the queen resides with her 

 consort, and which she is doomed never to quit again, after 

 having been once enclosed in it, since the portals soon prove 

 too narrow for her rapidly-increasing bulk. Encircling the regal 

 apartment, extends a labyrinth of countless chambers, in which 

 a numerous army of attendants and soldiers is constantly in 

 waiting. The space between these chambers and the external 

 wall of the citadel is filled with other cells, partly destined for 

 the eggs and young larvae, partly for store-rooms. The sub- 

 terranean passages which lead from the mound are hardly 

 less remarkable than the building itself. Perfectly cylindrical, 

 and lined with a cement of clay, similar to that of which the 

 hill is formed, they sometimes measure a foot in diameter. 

 They run in a sloping direction, under the bottom of the hill, 

 to a depth of three or four feet, and then ramifying horizontally 

 into numerous branches, ultimately rise near to the surface 

 at a considerable distance. At their entrance into the 

 interior of the hill, they are connected with a great number of 

 smaller galleries, which ascend the inside of the outer shell in 

 a spiral manner, and winding round the whole building to the 

 top, intersect each other at different heights, opening either im- 

 mediately into the dome in various places, and into the lower 

 half of the building, or communicating with every part of it by 

 other smaller circular passages. The necessity for the vast size 

 of the main galleries underground, evidently arises from the 

 circumstance of their being the great thoroughfare for the in- 



