INSECTS. 1 15 



heads and powerful jaws. The African termites * build 

 immense nests (Fig. 138), and the queen is often 40,000 

 times larger than the workers. 



VALUE. Eaten in Central Africa, and the nests used as fuel. 



I*'IG. 133. White ants, showing enormous queen, male, worker, and soldier, 

 and section of nest, showing the queen's cell. 



* Their hills have been seen twelve feet high and nearly one hun- 

 dred feet in circumference. They are divided into various apartments, 

 the semi-egg-shaped cell in the center containing the imprisoned queen 

 vho grows sometimes to a length of six inches. The workers attend 

 the royal chamber, removing the eggs that are laid by millions, and 

 placing them in nurseries or cemented cells made for the purpose. The 

 workers do great damage, and in the Isle of France a new building was 

 ruined in a few months by them. In Colombo, Ceylon, a large house 

 fell completely in pieces, the result of their ravages. 



