266 NATUEAL HISTORY. 



These galleries are sometimes carried under houses, which 

 the Ants enter, and, eating out all of the inside of the 

 timbers, leave them only as mere shells. Sometimes there 

 are many of these curious structures in the same neigh- 

 borhood. Dr. Adamson says that, in some parts near 

 Senegal, there are so many of them near together that 

 they appear like native villages. 



455. The community in one of these habitations is im- 

 mense in number, consisting of laborers and soldiers un- 

 der a king and queen. These last are the only ones that 

 come to the imago or perfect state. The laborers seem 

 to be larvae stopped in their development, so that they 

 never acquire wings. The soldiers, on the other hand, 

 are pupae. The queen lays all the eggs, to the number, 

 it is estimated, of forty or fifty millions in a year. This 

 she does in a royal chamber set apart for this purpose. 

 The laborers take the eggs as fast as she lays them, car- 

 ry them away to the nurseries, where they are hatched, 

 and take care of the young. They also do all the build- 

 ing and repairing, gather all the stores, and perform, all 

 the labor of any kind that is needed. The soldiers, on 

 the contrary, do no work, but stand guard, and defend 

 the community, in which they show great bravery and 

 energy, appearing boldly upon the outposts when any en- 

 emy appears, while all the laborers retire within. The 

 royal chamber is near the centre of the hillock, and is 

 surrounded by apartments which are occupied by what 

 may be called the body-guard of the queen, some of the 

 soldiers, and by her immediate attendants, some of the 

 laborers. She can never leave her chamber, for no open- 

 ing from it is large enough for the passage of her body, 

 which is enormously enlarged for the production of its 

 multitudes of eggs. The minutiae of the arrangement 

 of the nurseries and the various apartments, and of the 

 economy of this wonderful community, are very interest- 

 ing, but can not be entered upon here. 



456. The Book-lice form a small family nearly allied 



