Termites or White Ants 



their wings soon break off short and with the stumps that 

 are left to them they are quite incapable of rising from 

 the ground. 



After the nuptial flight the winged females or queens 

 which have escaped the attentions of their enemies seek 

 shelter in the ground and start a new colony. This may 

 be brought about by the queen and her consort, who is 

 known as a king, or, and this is more usual, by the com- 

 bined efforts of the queen and some individuals from the 

 old colony who join forces with her. 



Let us follow the fortunes of the queen and her willing 

 workers. They are all wingless individuals ordinary 

 workers, nurses, soldiers and, most curious of all, nasuti 

 or nosed ones. The first duty of the ordinary workers is 

 to construct an earthen cell for their queen ; this, though 

 termed a royal cell, is merely an oblong chamber of clay, 

 constructed in such a manner that it may be enlarged 

 from time to time. It forms the very centre of the new 

 colony and in it the queen spends the whole of her exist- 

 ence. Her royal palace is also her burial-place. Her 

 whole life is given to the formation of a new colony, she 

 is denied the excitement of the fights in which the soldiers 

 take part, or the distraction of building her home ; she 

 cannot even share the work of the nurses who tend her 

 progeny. In solitude she produces her eggs and then, 

 her work accomplished, she dies, and her arduous duties 

 fall upon another younger queen. 



Around the royal cell the workers labour unceasingly, 

 day and night, in the construction of hundreds of little 

 chambers, so that in an incredibly short space of time a 

 good-sized structure is formed, with the queen's abode as 

 a centre. Surrounding these small cells there are larger 

 ones connected by passages, and in course of time the 

 home of the termite colony is completed. 



During the building operations great changes have been 

 taking place in the appearance of the queen. During and 

 immediately after her nuptial flight she was a slim, 



57 



