4 88 THE TERMITES. 



The queen, thus developed and forever fixed in her home, is truly the mother of 

 her subjects, producing nearly eighty thousand eggs in twenty-four hours. The eggs 

 are carried off by the workers as soon as laid, and conveyed to suitable places in the 

 nest, where they are guarded until they are hatched, and are then fed and watched until 

 they have passed through their preliminary stages of existence. 



The great bulk of a Termite establishment is composed of workers, who outnumber 

 the soldiers in the proportion of a hundred to one. By the mysterious instinct 

 which is implanted in these insects, the 'soldiers and workers confine themselves to 

 their respective occupation, the former doing nothing but fight and the latter nothing 

 but labor. 



The untiring energy and wonderful skill of the laborers are evident by the structures 

 which they raise ; and the courage of the soldiers is quite as remarkable in its way. 

 These born gladiators seem to exult in war, and no matter what may be the size of the 

 assailant, they hurry to the attack with reckless fury, biting fiercely with their sharp 

 jaws ; and when once they have taken hold of anything that they fancy to be inimical 

 to them, retain their grasp with the proverbial tenacity of the bulldog. They may be 

 pulled to pieces without loosening their hold, and the body may be dragged away, 

 leaving the head still affixed by the jaws. The bare-limbed negro is soon forced to quit 

 the field, for although the Termite cannot sting, it can draw, at least, its own weight of 

 blood ; and even the fully clad European will bear gory proofs of its prowess. 



There are many species of Termite, and all are fearfully destructive, being, indeed, 

 the greatest pest of the country wherein they reside. Nothing, unless cased in metal, 

 can resist their jaws : and they have been known to destroy the whole woodwork of a 

 house in a single season. They always work in darkness, and at all expenditure of 

 labor keep themselves under cover, so that their destructive labors are often completed 

 before the least intimation has been given. For example, the Termites will bore through 

 the boards of a floor, drive their tunnels up the legs of the table or chairs, and consume 

 everything but a mere shell no thicker than paper, and yet leave everything apparently 

 in a perfect condition. Many a person has only learned the real state of his furniture 

 by finding a chair crumble into dust as he sat upon it, or a whole staircase falls to 

 pieces as soon as a foot was set upon it. In some cases the Termite lines its galleries with 

 clay, which soon becomes as hard as stone, and thereby produces very remarkable archi- 

 tectural changes. For example, it has been found that a row of wooden columns in 

 front of a house have been converted into stone pillars by these insects. 



The greater number of species belong to the tropical regions, where they are useful 

 in destroying the fallen trees that are so plentiful in those latitudes, and which, unless 

 speedily removed, might be injurious to the young saplings by which they are replaced. 

 Two species, however, are known in Europe, namely, Termes liicifugus and Termes 

 ruficollis, and have fully carried out their destructive character ; the former species 

 devouring oaks and firs, and the latter preferring olives and similar trees. At La Rochelle 

 these insects have multiplied so greatly as to demand the public attention, 



M. de Quatrefages, who visited one of the spots in which these destructive insects 

 had settled themselves, gives the following account of their devastating energy : "The 

 Prefecture and a few neighboring houses are the principal scene of the destructive 

 ravages of the Termites, but here they have taken complete possession of the premises. 

 In the garden not a stake can be put into the ground, and not a plank can be left on 

 the beds, without being attacked within twenty-four or forty-eight hours. The fences 

 put round the young trees are gnawed from the bottom, while the trees themselves are 

 gutted to the very branches. 



Within the building itself, the apartments and offices are all alike invaded. I saw, 

 upon the roof of a bedroom that had been lately repaired, galleries made by the Termites 

 which looked like stalactites, and which had begun to show themselves the very day 

 after the workmen left the place. In the cellars I found similar galleries, which were 

 either half-way between the ceiling and the floor, or running along the walls and 

 extending, no doubt, up to the very garrets ; for on the principal staircase other galleries 

 were observed, between the ground floor and the second floor, passing under the 

 plaster wherever it was sufficiently thick for the purpose, and only coming to view 



