TERMITE QUEEN 285 



habitants, by which they fetch their clay, wood, water, or provi- 

 sions, and their gradual ascent is requisite, as the Termites can 

 only with great difficulty climb perpendicularly. 



It may be imagined that such works require an enormous 

 population for their construction; and, indeed, the manner in 

 which an infant colony of termites is formed and grows, until 

 becoming, in its turn, the parent of new migrations, is not the 

 least wonderful part of this wonderful insect's history. 



At the end of the diy season, as soon as the first rains have 

 fallen, the male and female perfect termites, each about the 

 size of two soldiers, or thirty labourers, and furnished 

 with four long narrow wings folded on each other, 

 emerge from their retreats in myriads. After a 

 few hours their fragile wings fall off, and on the 

 following morning they are discovered covering 

 the surface of the earth and waters, where their 

 enemies — birds, reptiles, ants — cause so sweeping 

 a havoc that scarce one pair out of many thousands 

 escapes destruction. If by chance the labourers, 

 who are always busy prolonging their galleries, Termite 

 happen to meet with one of thase fortunate couples, 

 they immediately, impelled by their instinct, elect them sove- 

 reigns of a new community, and, conveying them to a place 

 of safety, begin to build them a small chamber of clay, their 

 palace and their prison — for beyond its walls they never again 

 emerge. 



Soon after the male dies, but, far from pining and wasting 

 over the loss of her consort, the female increases so wonderfully 

 in bulk that she ultimately weighs as much as 30,000 labourers, 

 and attains a length of three inches, with a proportional width. 

 This increase of size naturally requires a corresponding enlarge- 

 ment of the cell, which is constantly widened by the indefatigable 

 workers. Having reached her full size, the queen now begins 

 to lay her eggs, and as their extrusion goes on uninterruptedly, 

 night and day, at the rate of fifty or sixty in a minute, for 

 about two years, their total number may probably amount to 

 more than fifty millions ! A wonderful fecundity, which explains 

 how a termite colony, originally few in number, increases in a 

 few years to a population equalling or surpassing that of the 

 British empire. 



