302 INSECT ARCHITECTURE, 



for them, they lay the foundation of another at a few 

 inches distance. They sometimes, but not often, be- 

 gin the second before the first is finished, and a third 

 before they have completed the second. Five or six 

 of these singular turrets in a group may be seen in 

 the thick woods at the foot of a tree. They are so 

 very strongly built, that in case of violence, they will 

 sooner tear up the gravel and solid heart of their 

 foundation than break in the middle. When any of 

 them happen to be thus thrown down, the insects 

 do not abandon them; but, using their overturned 

 column, as a basis, they run up another perpendicu- 

 larly from it, to the usual height, fastening the under 

 part at the same time to the ground, to render it the 

 more secure. 



The interior of a turret is pretty equally divided 

 into innumerable cells, irregular in shape, but usually 

 more or less angular, generally quadrangular or 

 pentagonal, though the angles are not well defined. 

 Each shell has at least two entrances; but there are 

 no galleries, arches, nor wooden nurseries, as in the 

 nests of the Warrior ( T. belHcosus). The two species 

 which build turret nests are very different in size, 

 and the dimensions of the nests differ in proportion. 



The White Ants of Trees. 



Latreille's species of white ant ( Termes lucifugus, 

 Rossi), formerly mentioned as found in the south of 

 Europe, appear to have more the habits of the jet 

 ant, described page 279, than their congeners of the 

 tropics. They live in the interior of the trunks of 

 trees, the wood of which they eat, and form their 

 habitations of the galleries which they thus excavate. 

 M, Latreille says they appear to be furnished with an 

 acid for the purpose of softening the wood, the odour 

 of which is exceedingly pungent. They prefer the 



