CHAPTER XIII. 



ANIMAL SCAVENGERS TERMITES, ETC. 



Termites ; Great Strength of Nests Rapidity with which they remove 

 Dead Trees Without the Termites there would be no Forests 

 Destruction of Furniture ; Houses and Deserted Towns The Teredo 

 removes Wrecks and Drift-wood, Ocean otherwise choked Vegetable 

 Matter brought down by the Ambernoh River Food of Deep Sea 

 Animals Boring Mollusks Wood-boring Beetles ; the Weevil and 

 " Death-watch" Caterpillars and Worms as Scavengers. 



NATURE has other ways of disposing of her vegetable 

 refuse besides those already mentioned. 



In tropical regions, especially where the land is not 

 fully cultivated, a fallen tree has but little chance of quietly 

 mouldering away. Instead of this, it is devoured, and that 

 with wonderful rapidity, by the various species of Termites, 

 called " Bugga-bugs " in Africa, " Cupim " in Brazil, " wood 

 ants " and " white ants " in the West Indies. 



Ants they are not, however, for though, closely resem- 

 bling them in many of their ways, they differ from them 

 in the shape of their wings, &c., and their larvae, or grubs, 

 are active creatures, with six legs like the perfect insect, 

 whereas the ant-grubs are legless and worm-shaped. 



Termites belong to the same order of insects as the 

 dragon-fly, that is, the Neuroptera, or nerve-winged order. 

 In every nest there are three classes of insects the 

 labourers (Fig. 39), whose mouths are adapted for gnawing ; 



