VOL. LXXI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 75 



Those which build either the roofed turrets or the nests in the trees, seem in 

 most instances to have a strong resemblance to them, both in their form and 

 economy, going through the same changes from the egg to the winged state. 

 The queens also increase to a great size when compared with the labourers; but 

 very short of those queens before described. The largest are from about an inch 

 to an inch and a half long, and not much thicker than a common quill. There 

 is the same kind of peristaltic motion in the abdomen, but in a much smaller 

 degree ; and, as the animal is incapable of moving from her place, the eggs 

 are doubtless carried to the different cells by the labourers, and reared with a 

 care similar to that which is practised in the larger nests. 



It is remarkable of all these different species, that the working and the fight- 

 ing insects never expose themselves to the open air ; but either travel under 

 ground, or within such trees and substances as they destroy ; except indeed when 

 they cannot proceed by their latent passages, and find it convenient or necessary 

 to search for plunder above ground. In that case they make pipes of that 

 material with which they build their nests. The larger sort use the red clay ; 

 the turret builders use the black clay ; and those which build in the trees employ 

 the same ligneous substances of which their nests are composed. With the ma- 

 terials 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 over the surface ; and for that purpose erect a covered way or, 

 arch, still of the same materials, continuing it with many windings and ramifica- 

 tions through large groves ; having, where it is possible, subterranean pipes 

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

 galleries above ground be destroyed by any violence, or the tread of men or ani- 

 mals alarms them. When we chance 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 are heard distinctly at every step we take ; soon 

 after which we may examine their galleries in vain for the insects ; we find only 

 small holes, just large enough for them, by which they have made their escape 

 into their subterraneous roads. These galleries are large enough for them to 

 pass and repass so as to prevent any stoppages, though there are always nume- 

 rous passengers, 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. 



The termites, except their heads, are exceeding soft, and covered with a very 

 thin and delicate skin ; being blind, they are no match on open ground for the 

 ants, who can see, and are all of them covered with a strong horny shell not 

 easily pierced, and are of dispositions bold, active, and rapacious. Whenever 

 the termites are dislodged from their covered ways, the various species of the 



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