136 TRINIDAD. 



termites, are too well known to require any extended notice ; I 

 will only remark that the nymphs, not the grown insect, are 

 destructive. The nymph is of a whitish colour, and without 

 wings. The males and females are provided with very long 

 wings, of a dark-blue colour, and the insects themselves are of a 

 light brown hue, with a brownish dark head ; the wings are very 

 readily detached, which operation the animal itself performs with 

 its legs. During, or after, heavy rains, they issue, as it were, 

 from every corner, literally clouding the air, where they become 

 the prey of swallows and other birds. This remark does not 

 apply to the termites only, for cock-roaches, ants, and other insects 

 are observed to rush out of retreats, or to abandon their nests in 

 heavy rains, some in a state of visible anxiety, as the cock-roaches, 

 for instance, which are seen running or flying in all directions. 

 How to account for this influence of rain ? Really, I cannot dis- 

 cover any satisfactory explanation : they are not forced out by in- 

 undations, since many live in houses ; they do not come forth in 

 search of food, not even, I think, with a view to breeding. The 

 wood-lice are certainly very destructive, but their ravages here 

 are not, by any means, to be compared with those of the white 

 ants in Africa, and southern Asia, particularly. They build their 

 nests in trees, or in houses on the beams and rafters, with covered 

 galleries for communication from one point to another ; but they 

 more commonly take their lodging within the wood itself, which 

 they gradually destroy, and that in a very short time, by forming 

 longitudinal excavations throughout the interior. Scantling, boards, 

 &c., thus eaten away become a mere shell, and break down, though, 

 to all external appearance, entire and sound. They attack, in 

 preference, the softer woods, and are very partial to white pine, 

 and other foreign timber; but they rarely invade the country 

 growths, and especially our hard woods ; hence the inappreciable 

 advantage of the latter for building purposes. I am not aware 

 that the termites of the island ever raise such pyramidal earth- 

 structures as the white ants of Africa and Asia do. 



Ants. Few countries can be said to harbour so many species 

 of ants, and in such numbers, as Trinidad. Although it is not 

 pretended that a description of all can be given, above twenty dis- 

 tinct species are, however, well known. Of these, several tribes 

 inhabit the high woods, and are never seen in towns or dwelling- 

 houses; whilst others seem to prefer the haunts of man, where they 



