298 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



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QUEEN TERMITE 



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defend the nest when attacked. 



two entrances, one above the other, so that the insect can 

 pass in and out with perfect C.I-M . 



The May-fly is also remarkable for the fact that the 

 perfect insect changes its skin shortly after reaching maturity. 

 Before this change takes place the female insect is the 

 "Green Drake " of the angler; afterward-, the "Grey Drake." 



To this group belong also the TKKMITKS. or " White 

 Ants," so exceedingly numerous in almost all the wanner 

 parts of the world. These are social insects, living together 

 in vast colonies, and making most wonderful nests, which 

 consist of a vast and complicated series of chambers and 

 passages, sheltered beneath a turn-ted dome of clay. In 

 the centre is the "royal cell," inhabited by the "kin-" 

 and " queen," as the perfect male and female .ire called. 

 These are winged when first they leave the pupal shell. 

 Hut after taking a single flight, they snap off their wings 

 at the base, just as ants do; while for the rest of their 

 lives they are absolute prisoners in the cell built around 

 them by the workers. 



Shortly after this strange incarceration takes place, the 

 body of the queen swells to a huge size, so that, to quote 

 Professor Drummond, she becomes " a large, loathsome, 

 cylindrical package, 2 or 3 inches long, in shape like a 

 sausage, and as white as a bolster." She now begins to 

 deposit eggs at the rate of several thousands in a day, 

 which are at once carried off by the workers, to whom is 

 entrusted the entire care of the helpless young. Tlu^e 

 workers, which are exceedingly numerous, also enlarge the 

 nest from time to time, and construct tunnels of clay up the 

 trunks and along the branches of trees, through which they 

 may convey to the nurseries in security the gums and 

 decaying wood for the nutriment of the young. 



A fourth form of insect is also found in the termites' 

 nest, known as the " Soldier." The head is much larger 

 and the jaws are much longer and stronger than thoM- 

 of the worker, and the sole function appears to be to 

 Both soldier and worker, apparently, proceed from the 



same eggs which produce the king and queen, the difference in development being pn.bably 

 due as in the hive-bee to the character of the food with which the young are supplied. 



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TERMITES 



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