1 88 Flash m(;hts ox Nature 



indifferent. Tlic whole place has apparently been 

 demoralised by a recent marriage flij^ht. Every- 

 body in our nest is j^oing to the war. Come along 

 and help us I " 



Forthwith they sally out, and make for the city 

 of the despised yellow Turfites. They fall upon 

 it unexpectedly, and kill the outer sentries. Then 

 the battle begins in earnest. Half the Turfites rush 

 out in battle array, and, banding themselves to- 

 gether, to make up for their individual small size, 

 fall fiercely upon this or that isolated Warrior. 

 Occasionally, by dint of mere numbers, they beat 

 off the invader with heavy loss ; but much more 

 often, the large and strong-jawed Warriors win the 

 day, and destroy to a worker the opposing forces. 

 They crush their adversaries' heads with their vice- 

 like mandibles. Meanwhile, withm the nest, the 

 other half of the workers -the division told off as 

 special nurses — are otherwise emploved in defend- 

 ing and protecting the rising generation. At the 

 first alarm, at the first watchword passed with 

 waving antenUcC through tlie nest, "A Warrior 

 host is attacking us I " they hurry to the chambers 

 where the cocoons are stored, and bear them off 

 in their mouths into the recesses of the nest, the 

 lowest and most inaccessible of all the chambers. 

 When at last the day is lost, the Warriors break in 

 and steal all the pupie they can lay their jaws 

 upon ; but many survive in the long, dark tunnels, 

 with a few devoted workers still left to tend and 

 teach them. 



No. 4 shows us the final stage in such a slave- 



