Miscellaneous. 485 
hatched out. ‘lhe eggs, which look like grains of sugar, will be 
found piled up on the edge of a terraced formation where it joins 
the nursery. Here the queen’s cell is situated, somewhat about the 
shape and size of an inverted saucer, and surrounded by other 
terraced cells. Where the base of the nest comes in contact with 
the ground it forms a coarse network of cells with galleries leading 
downward into the earth, from which they gain access to the 
outside world. 
All these mounds are in the first instance formed over a dead 
stump or fallen log, which in the course of time is by the action of 
the termites transformed into this triturated woody material. The 
social life and transformations of the different forms found in these 
nests is very remarkable, and has puzzled naturalists from earliest 
ages. Pliny, in his ‘ Natural History of the World, where all the 
curious and remarkable “ facts” known to the ancients are recorded, 
gives the following account of the “Indian Pismires,’ which is 
probably intended for white ants :— 
“In the country of the Northern Indians, named Dardae, the 
ants do cast up gold above the ground from out of holes and mines 
within the earth ; these are in colour like to cats, and as big as the 
wolves of Egypt. This gold beforesaid, which they work up in the 
winter time, the Indians do steal from them in the extream heat 
of summer, waiting their opportunity when the pismires lie close 
within their caves under the ground from the parching sun, yet not 
without great danger. For if they happen to wind them, and catch 
their scent, out they go, and follow after them in great haste, and 
with such fury they fly upon them, that oftentimes they tear them 
in pieces, let them make way as fast as they can upon their most 
swift camels, yet they are not able to save them, so fleet of pace, so 
fierce of courage are they, to recover the gold they love so well.” 
Hach nest contains three very distinct classes or castes. First, the 
winged males and females, which hardly differ in general appear- 
ance from each other, and are popularly known as ‘“ flying ants.” 
They are developed from the eggs by a gradual series of moults, 
and when about half-grown show well-formed wing-cases. The 
nests during the winter months are full of these termites in all 
stages of growth, and early in November they undergo their final 
moult and emerge with two pairs of full-grown wings. The 
workers now cut regular galleries through the earthen walls, which 
are guarded by the soldiers until the time comes for them to all fly 
from the nest. The bulk of them are destroyed by birds and 
hundreds of other insects that prey upon these helpless creatures, 
while thousands of them perish around lamps and fires. A few 
pairs, however, manage, after shaking off their wings (which have a 
curious cross suture close to the shoulders by which they are very 
easily pulled off ), to crawl under a log, where, if they manage to exist 
until they are found by a foraging party of workers and soldiers, 
they found a fresh colony. 
What becomes of the male termite after the female becomes 
pregnant I do not know, as I have never been able to find him in a 
