WHITE ANTS. 93 



yet become acclimatised in England ; but as various destructive 

 species are either indigenous or acclimatised in some parts of the 

 United States, and even in Europe (at Bordeaux, for example), 

 every precaution should be taken to prevent any risk of their esta- 

 blishing themselves in our own country. 



Several classes of individuals are met with in the nests of the 

 Termites, and their relations to each other, and their transforma- 

 tions, do not appear to be clearly made out. 



In Termes Betticosus, the habits of which were observed at Sierra 

 Leone by Smeathman, the males and females leave the nest for their 

 " marriage flight," as in the case of ants ; but instead of the male 

 perishing, as with Hymenoptera, the males and females lose their 

 wings, and a surviving pair are led into the nest by the neuters, 

 after losing their wings, when the abdomen of the female becomes 

 enormously distended with eggs, until her bulk is equal to that 

 of 20,000 or 30,000 workers, and she measures about three inches 

 in length. The eggs are discharged by a constant peristaltic 

 motion, at the rate of about sixty per minute. Unlike 

 Hymenoptera, the greater part of the work of the nest is per- 

 formed by the larvae, from which the pupae differ in possessing 

 rudiments of wings. There is also another form, the soldiers, 

 which differ from the larvae by their enormous heads and power- 

 ful mandibles. Some writers have regarded them as pupae, and 

 others as neuters ; the latter theory is most probable ; but further 

 careful observations on these insects would be of great interest. 

 Smeathman describes how, when the nests are attacked, the workers 

 disappear, and the soldiers rush out with the greatest fury, snap- 

 ping blindly at every object, and if they seize a man's leg, instantly 

 drawing a blood-stain through his stocking an inch long. But if 

 the alarm subsides, the soldiers disappear, and the workers issue 

 forth in great numbers, and immediately set to work to repair any 

 damage which the nest may have sustained. This and several 

 allied species build nests in various parts of Africa to the height 

 of ten or twelve feet, formed of a species of cement so hard and 

 solid that they will bear the weight of three or four men at once. The 

 sentinels of the herds of antelopes and other wild animals use them 

 for watch-towers. Frank Gates, a recent traveller in South Africa, 

 -writes : l " The white ants kept tumbling over me all night, and 

 knocking down leaves from the roof. These white ants (Termites) 

 are the curse of all African settlers and travellers, devouring 

 1 Matabele Land and the Victoria Falls, pp. 134 and 135. 



