84 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNOJ78J. 



marching with such expedition, as well as of discovering their chief settlement, 

 which is probably built in the same manner as the large hills before described. 

 If so, it may be larger and more curious, as these insects were at least one-third 

 larger than the other species, and consequently their buildings must be more 

 wonderful, if possible: thus much is certain, there must be some fixed place for 

 their king and queen, and the young ones. 



The economy of nature is wonderfully displayed in a comparative observation 

 on the different species who are calculated to live under ground until they have 

 wings, and this species which marches in great bodies in open day. The former, 

 in the first 2 states, that is, of labourers and soldiers, have no eyes that Mr. S. 

 could ever discover; but when they arrive at the winged or perfect state in which 

 they are to appear abroad, though only for a few hours, and that chiefly in the 

 night, they are furnished with 2 conspicuous and fine eyes: so the termes viaruin, 

 or marching bugga bugs, being intended to walk in the open air and light, are 

 even in the first state furnished with eyes proportionably as fine as those which 

 are given to the winged or perfect insects of the other species. 



Explanation of the Figures to Mr. Smeathman's Account of' the Termites of Africa, Sj-c. 



PI. 1, fig. 8, the hill-nest raised by the termites bellicosi ; aaa, turrets by which their hills are raised 

 and enlarged. 



Fig. 9, a section of fig. 8, as it would appear on being cut down through the middle from the top 

 a foot lower than the surface of the ground; a a, a horizontal line from a on the left, and a perpen- 

 dicular line from a at the bottom, will intersect each other at the royal chamber ; the darker shades 

 near it are the empty apartments and passages, which it seems are left so for the attendants on the king 

 and queen, who, when old, may require near 100,000 to attend them every day; the parts which 

 are the least shaded and dotted are the nurseries, surrounded, like the royal chamber, by empty pas- 

 sages on all sides for the more easy access to them with the eggs from the queen, the provision for the 

 young, &c. The magazines of provisions are situated without any seeming order among the vacant 

 passages which surround the nurseries ; b, the top of the interior building, which often seems, from 

 the arches carrying upward, to be adorned on the sides with pinnacles; c, the floor of the area or 

 nave; odd, the large galleries which ascend from under all the buildings spirally to the top; e, a 

 bridge. 



Fig. 10, the first appearance of a hill-nest by two turrets. 



Fig. 11, a tree, with the nest of the termites arborum, and their covered way; ffff, covered 

 ways of the termites arborum. 



Fig. 12, a section of the nest of the termites arborum. 



Fig. 13, a nest of the termites bellicosi, with Europeans on it, seemingly observing a vessel atsea. 



Fig. H, a bull standing centinel on one of these nests, while the rest of the herd are ruminating 

 below; gcg, the African palm-trees, from the nuts of which is made the oleum palmae. 



Fig. 1 5, a transverse section of a royal chamber; aa, the thin sides in which the entrances are made. 



Fig. 16, a longitudinal section of a royal chamber; b, the entrances; a, the door shut up, as left 

 by the labourers. 



Fig 17, a royal chamber fore-shortened. 



Fig. 18, the same royal chamber represented as just opened, and discovering b, the queen, and 

 her attendants running round her; bb, a line drawn from b to b will run along the range of doors 

 or entrances; aaa, a line run from a to a a will cross the door, which remains closed as it was found. 



