HISTORY OF INSECTS. 77 



CHAPTER XV. 



HISTORY OF THE WHITE ANT.* 



Class Neuroptera. | Order Termites. 



Genus Termes. 



244. THE white ants may be reckoned, next to 

 the locusts, the most destructive insects known to 

 man ; not merely articles of food, but clothing, 

 fences, trees, and even houses, are doomed to fall 

 before them. 



245. The white ants live in immense com- 

 munities, consisting of a king and queen, soldiers 

 and labourers ; the king and queen are the perfect 

 insect, male and female ; the soldiers are said to 

 be the pupa state, and the labourers, the larva 

 state of the same insect. 



246. It is the only office of the king and queen 

 to increase their kind, the queen laying eggs to 

 the amount of eighty thousand every day. 



247. It is the office of the soldiers to attack 

 every object or living thing that in any way 



* From KIRBY and SPENCE'S Introduction to Entomology, 

 abridged by those authors from Smeathman. 



