76 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1781. 



former, who probably are as numerous above ground as the latter are in their 

 subterraneous passages, instantly seize and drag them away to their nests, to 

 feed the young brood. The termites are therefore exceeding solicitous to pre- 

 serve their covered ways in good repair ; and if one of them be demolished, for 

 a few inches in length, it is wonderful how soon they rebuild it. At first in 

 their hurry they get into the open part an inch or two, but stop so suddenly that 

 it is very evident they are surprized ; for though some run straight on, and get 

 under the arch as speedily as possible in the farther part, most of them run as 

 fast back, and very few will venture through that part of the track which is left 

 uncovered. In a few minutes they are seen rebuilding the arch, and by the next 

 morning they will have restored their gallery for 3 or 4 yards in length, if so 

 much has been ruined ; and, on opening it again, will be found as numerous as 

 ever, under it, passing both ways, li you continue to destroy it several times, 

 they will at length seem to give up the point, and build another in a different 

 direction ; but, if the old one led to some favourite plunder, in a few days they 

 will rebuild it again ; and, unless you destroy their nest, never totally abandon 

 their gallery. 



The termites arborum, those which build in trees, frequently establish their 

 nests within the roofs and other parts of houses, to which they do considerable 

 damage, if not timely extirpated. The large species are not only much more 

 destructive, but more difficult to be guarded against, since they make their ap- 

 proaches 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, and bore quite through them, following the course of the fibres to 

 the top, or making lateral perforations and cavities here and there as they pro- 

 ceed. 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 sup- 

 port 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 tye the various parts of the roof 

 together, and that to the posts which support it : thus, with the assistance of 

 the rats, who during the rainy season are apt to shelter themselves there, and to 

 burrow through it, they very soon ruin the house, by weakening the fastenings 

 and exposing it to the wet. In the mean time the posts will be perforated in 

 every direction as full of holes as that timber in the bottoms of ships which has 

 been bored by the worms ; the fibrous and knotty parts, which are the hardest, 

 being left to the last. 



