THE WHITE ANTS. 



arbor um employs for the purpose the ligneous substances of which 

 their nests are composed. 



55. With these materials they completely line most of the roads 

 leading from their nests into the various parts of the country, 

 and travel out and home with the utmost security in all kinds of 

 weather. If they meet a rock or any other obstruction, they will 

 make their way upon the surface, and for that purpose erect a 

 covered way or arch, still of the same materials, continuing it 

 with many windings and ramifications through large grooves, 

 having, where it is possible, subterranean pipes running parallel 

 with them, into which they sink, and save themselves, if their 

 galleries above ground are destroyed by any violence, or the tread 

 of men or animals alarms them. When any one chances by accident 

 to enter any solitary grove, where the ground is pretty well 

 covered with their arched galleries, they give the alarm by loud 

 hissings, which he hears distinctly at every step he makes ; soon 

 after which he may examine their galleries in vain for the insects, 

 which escape through little holes, just large enough for them, 

 into their subterraneous roads. These galleries are large enough 

 for them to pass and repass, so as to prevent any stoppages, and 

 shelter them equally from light and air, as well as from their 

 enemies, of which the ants, being the most numerous, are the 

 most formidable. 



56. The Termites arborum, those which build in trees, fre- 

 quently establish their nests within the roofs and other parts of 

 houses, to which they do considerable damage if not extirpated. 



57. The larger species are, however, not only much more 

 destructive, but more difficult to be guarded against, since they 

 make their approaches chiefly under ground, descending below 

 the foundations of houses and stores at several feet from the 

 surface, and rising again either in the floors, or entering at the 

 bottoms of the posts, of which the sides of the buildings are 

 composed, bore quite through them, following the course of the 

 fibres to the top, or making lateral perforations and cavities here 

 and there as they proceed. 



While some are employed in gutting the posts, others ascend 

 from them, entering a rafter or some other part of the roof. If 

 they once find the thatch, which seems to be a favourite food, 

 they soon bring up wet clay, and build their pipes or galleries 

 through the roof in various directions, as long as it will support 

 them, sometimes eating the palm-tree leaves and branches of 

 which it is composed, and perhaps (for variety seems very pleasing 

 to them) the rattan or other running plant which is used as a cord 

 to tie the various parts of the roof together, and to the posts 

 which support it ; thus, with the assistance of the rats, who, 

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