344 KAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



sence of the Termites in Saintonge any more than 

 in the country round Bordeaux ; indeed no naturalist 

 had ever mentioned their occurrence in the basin of 

 the Charente until they suddenly appeared in the 

 very heart of the town of Rochefort, where they 

 spread rapidly day by day, until now, after the space 

 of half a century, they have successively invaded 

 several other towns, infested the gardens, attacked 

 numerous isolated houses, and even threaten to 

 overrun the entire district* Is it probable that 

 these insects should be of the same species as the 

 lucifugus, and that, changing the country habits 

 which they exhibit in La Gironde, they should have 

 accommodated themselves to a town life in Sain- 

 tonge ? f Is it not more reasonable to assume that 

 the Termite of Rochefort is a new species, or at least 

 new to this district, which having been imported by 



* According to M. Bobe-Moreau, Termites were not discovered 

 at Rochefort until 1797, when they were found in a house that had 

 long been uninhabited, in which they had destroyed the greater 

 part of the woodwork together with all the furniture. After this, 

 they spread to the neighbouring houses. In 1804, their progress 

 was not yet very great, for Latreille mentions that there is a report 

 that the Termes lucifugus had for the last few years given much 

 uneasiness to the inhabitants of Rochefort, in consequence of these 

 insects having made their way into several of the houses. In 1829 

 the same writer spoke in a very different strain of the damage done 

 by these insects in the workshops and magazines of the navy. 



f M. Lucas, member of the scientific commission sent by govern- 

 ment to Algeria, has found in that country the T. lucifugus and 

 the T. flavicollis. He has only met with the first of these insects 

 in the country, the second alone penetrates into inhabited houses. 

 Thus wherever the T. lucifugus has been observed in its native 

 state, it has shown habits which differ from those exhibited by the 

 Termites of Rochefort. 



