TERMITES. 203 



themselves in compact line around them. They attacked fiercely 

 any intruding object, and as fast as their front ranks were de- 

 stroyed, others filled up their places. When the jaws closed in 

 the flesh, they suffered themselves to be torn in pieces rather 

 than loosen their hold. It might be said that this instinct is 

 rather a cause of their ruin than a protection when a colony is 

 attacked by the well-known enemy of termites, the ant-bear ; 

 but it is the soldiers only which attach themselves to the long 

 worm-like tongue of this animal, and the workers, on whom the 

 prosperity of the young brood immediately depends, are left for 

 the most part unharmed. I always found, on thrusting my 

 finger into a mixed crowd of termites, that the soldiers only 

 fastened upon it. Thus the fighting caste do in the end serve 

 to protect the species by sacrificing themselves to its good ^ 



• Phil. Trans., loc. cit 



