334 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



attention to the king, but their devotion to the queen 

 is excessive. The space that is left free round the 

 latter is constantly filled by several thousand eager 

 attendants who move round her, always turning in 

 the same direction. Some feed her, others remove 

 the eggs which she is unceasingly laying, for here, 

 as in the case of the bees, the queen is the actual 

 mother of her subjects, and her productiveness is 

 truly marvellous. If it were not for the immense 

 number of labourers which each colony must contain 

 in order to accomplish such vast works, it would be 

 difficult to believe the details which Smeathman de- 

 clares he has repeatedly verified. This monstrous 

 abdomen seems to be nothing but a vast ovary, 

 whose multiplied branches enclose so large a number 

 of germs in the course of development that there are 

 always some that have reached maturity. These 

 canals may be seen through the attenuated and 

 transparent integuments presenting incessant peri- 

 staltic or vermicular motions, first at one point and 

 then at another. By means of this mechanism, the 

 female Termite, probably almost involuntarily, lays 

 upwards of sixty eggs in a minute, that is to say, 

 more than 80,000 in a day, and Smeathman is led to 

 believe that this prodigious quantity is deposited with 

 the same activity throughout the whole year. 



These myriads of eggs being promptly collected 

 are carried into the nurseries, and very soon there 

 issue from them a like number of larvas, similar to 

 the workers, but smaller in size, and of a snow- 

 white colour. These larvas continue to live for some 

 time in the cells in which they were hatched. Here 

 they are the objects of the most attentive care, the 



