INSECTA. 143 



themselves dwellings of a globular * form, composed of 

 calcareous matter, and very large. The rojal chamber 

 occupies the center, and, shaped something like a bake- 

 oven. is the dwelling-place of the queen. This royal 

 ant, when full winged and filled with eggs, is a thousand 

 times larger than the common termite. The white ants 

 live in a community, and are divided into three classes, 

 the workers, which are barely three lines long, the sol- 

 diers, half an inch long, and the king and queen, which 

 are the only perfect insects. The workers are supposed 

 to be the larvee, and the soldiers the nymphse ; the for- 

 mer are the builders, and carry provisions, the latter 

 guard the stores, and, what is singular, there are never 

 found but two perfect insects in one nest. When the 

 larvae, passing through the pupa state, are at length 

 transformed into the perfect insect, and ready to go 

 forth, they may be seen swarming in the evenings before 

 the rainy season, going oif in multitudes to form new 

 colonies. The workers and soldiers, however, never 

 appear, but pursue their labors unremittingly under the 

 earth, or trunks of trees. They commit great ravages 

 in furniture, beams, posts, and, in short, every kind of 

 wood, by boring, forming galleries throughout the inside, 

 but leaving the outer surface untouched, but which, nev- 

 ertheless, falls to pieces on the slightest stroke. With 

 surprising instinct, however, they cover their operations 

 with a coating of clay, cemented by a peculiar secretion 

 provided by nature, which conceals their depredations 

 from a superficial observation ; none ever suspecting 

 their ravages, whilst they are sapping and mining below. 

 They are most destructive in the lightly-built houses of 

 the torrid zone. These mischief-working operations, 

 keeping the outside fair while laboring to ruin the struc- 



