ORDER VIII. NEUROPTERA.— TERMITES. Syl 
towards the end of August. The perfect Ant Lions diffuse an odor of 
roses; their flight, which is weak, distinguishes them from the dragon-flies. 
Termes. — The animals constituting this group are noted for their ex- 
traordinary characteristics and habits. Like the bees and ants, they organ- 
ize a kind of political society, live under established rules, keep standing 
armies, and make war, and construct fortifications, on scientific principles. 
As miners, masons, and architects they exhibit remarkable skill and ingenu- 
ity ; and, according to Mr. Smeathman, they form gardens for the cultiva- 
tion of a minute fungus! With this insect-people royalty, caste, and 
slavery are everlasting and immutable laws. There are three distinct ranks 
or orders among them, constituting a well-regulated community. These are, 
first, the laborers, or working insects; next, the soldiers, or fighting order, 
who abstain from all labor, and are about twice as long as the former, and 
equal in bulk to about fifteen of them; and, lastly, the winged, or perfect 
insects, which may be styled the nobility, or gentry, of the state; for they 
neither labor nor fight, being scarcely capable even of self-defence. These 
alone are capable of being elected kings or queens; and it has been so 
ordained by nature, that they emigrate within a few weeks after they are 
elevated to this state, and either establish new kingdoms, or perish in the 
space of one or two days. 
The first order (the working insects) are most numerous, being in the 
proportion of one hundred to one of the soldiers. In this state they are 
about a quarter of an inch long, and twenty-five of them weigh about a 
grain, so that they are not so large as some of the ants. 
The second order, or soldiers, have a very different form from the labor- 
ers, and have been by some authors supposed to be the males, and the former 
the neuters ; but they are, in reality, the same insects as the foregoing, only 
they have undergone a change of form, and approached one degree nearer 
to the perfect state. 
The third order, or the insect in its perfect state, varies its form still more 
than ever, differing, in every essential part, from the laborers and soldiers ; 
besides which, it is now furnished with four fine, large, brownish, transparent 
wings, with which it is, at the time of emigration, to wing its way in search 
of a new settlement. The difference is, indeed, so great, that these perfect 
insects have not, until recently, been supposed to belong to the same com- 
munity with the others, and are not to be discovered in the nest until just 
before the commencement of the rainy season, when they undergo the last 
change, which is preparative to the formation of new colonies. They are 
equal in bulk to two soldiers and about thirty laborers; and, with the aid 
of their wings, roam about for a few hours, when their wings fall off, and 
they become the prey of innumerable birds, reptiles, and insects. Hence 
