220 MANUAL OF ZOOLOGY. 



Each species of Termites consists of several distinct orders, 

 or castes, which live together, and constitute populous, orga- 

 nised communities. They inhabit structures, known as * Ter- 

 mitaria,' consisting of mounds or hillocks, some of which are 



* five feet high, and are formed of particles of earth, worked into 

 a material as hard as stone.' The Termitarium has no external 

 aperture for ingress or egress, as far as can be seen, the en- 

 trance being placed at some distance, and connected with the 

 central building by means of covered ways and galleries. Each 

 Termitarium is composed of ' a vast number of chambers and 

 irregular intercommunicating galleries, built up with particles 

 of earth or vegetable matter, cemented together with the saliva 

 of the insects.' Many of ' the very large hillocks are the work 

 of many distinct species, each of which uses materials diffe- 

 rently compacted, and keeps to its own portion of the 

 tumulus.' 



A family of Termites consists of a king and queen, of the 

 workers, and of the soldiers. The royal couple are the parents 

 of the colony, and ' are always kept together, closely guarded 

 by a detachment of workers, in a large chamber in the very 

 heart of the hive, surrounded by much stronger walls than the 

 other cells. They are both wingless, and immensely larger 

 than the workers and soldiers. The queen, when in her 

 chamber, is always found in a gravid condition, her abdomen 

 enormously distended with eggs, which as fast as they come 

 forth, are conveyed by a relay of workers in their mouths from 

 the royal chamber to the minor cells dispersed through the 

 hive.' 



At the beginning of the rainy season a number of winged 

 males and females are produced, which, when they arrive at 

 maturity, leave the hive, and fly abroad. They then shed 

 their wings (a special provision for this existing in a natural 

 seam running across the root of the wing and dividing the 

 nervures) ; they pair, and then become the kings and queens 

 of future colonies. 



The workers and the soldiers are distinct from the moment 

 of their emergence from the egg, and they do not acquire 

 their special characteristics in consequence of any difference of 

 food or treatment. Both are wingless, and they differ solely 

 in the armature of the head. The duties of the workers are to 



* build, make covered roads, nurse the young brood from the 

 egg upwards, take care of the king and queen, who are the 

 progenitors of the whole colony, and secure the exit of the 

 males and females, when they acquire wings, and fly out to 

 pair and disseminate the race.' The duties of the soldiers are 

 to defend the community from all attacks which may be made 



