THE COASTS OF SAINTONGE. 343 



this difference of two months between the two 

 periods of the metamorphosis is quite sufficient to 

 raise doubts as to the identity of the species, and 

 the more so in this case because it is in the more 

 southern region that the metamorphosis is reported 

 to be the latest. If the observations of Latreille on 

 the lucifugus of the Landes had been repeated and 

 confirmed, and if M. Blanchard had not found 

 winged males in the nests at La Rochelle in the 

 month of September, the fact that we have recorded 

 would of itself seem almost sufficient for the solution 

 of this question. 



Other facts, which we must bear in mind, are more- 

 over in opposition to the generally received opinion. 

 Unless under very exceptional circumstances, the 

 same instincts occur in all the representatives of the 

 same species of animals. In insects more especially 

 we cannot admit that these instincts vary with the 

 locality, or, in other words, that they differ in dif- 

 ferent colonies. In Provence and in the neighbour- 

 hood of Bordeaux, Termites are found only in the 

 country, and far from following man into the towns, 

 they seem even to avoid all rural habitations. If 

 this were not the case, and if the Termites of the 

 Gironde, like those of Senegal and of Charente- 

 Inferieure, penetrated into all warehouses, and break- 

 ing through the hoops which encircle the tuns, occa- 

 sioned the loss of the wine, the Medoc wine owners 

 would assuredly have spoken of the damage done to 

 their property, and yet, as far as I know, they have 

 never made any complaints on the subject. 



No mention is made in historic times of the pre- 



z 4 



