840 INSECTA — TERMITES. 



In short, it differs so much from its form and appearance in the other two 

 states, that it has never been supposed to be the same animal, but by those 



who have seen it in the same nests : and some of these have distrusted the 

 evidence of their senses. It was so long before I met with them in their 

 nests myself, that I doubted the information that was given me by the natives, 

 that they belonged to the same family. Indeed we may open twenty nests 

 without finding one winged one, for those are to be found only just before 

 the commencement of the rainy season, when they undergo the last change, 

 which is preparative to their colonization. 



" In the winged state, they have also much altered their size as well as 

 form. Their bodies now measure between six or seven tenths of an inch in 

 length, and their wings above two inches and a half from tip to tip, and 

 they are equal in bulk to about thirty laborers, or two soldiers. They are 

 now also furnished with two large eyes placed on each side of the head, and 

 very conspicuous. If they have any before, they are not easily to be distin- 

 guished. Probably in the two first states, their eyes, if they have any, may 

 be small like those of moles ; for as they live like these animals always un- 

 der ground, they have as little occasion for these organs, and it is not to be 

 wondered at that we do not discover them ; but the case is much altered 

 when they arrive at the winged state in which they are to roam, though but 

 for a few hours, through the wide air, and explore new and distant regions. 

 In this form the animal comes abroad during or soon after the first tornado, 

 which, at the latter end of the dry season proclaims the approach of the 

 ensuing rains, and seldom waits for a second or tliird shower, if the first, as 

 is generally the case, happens in the night, and brings much wet after it. 

 The quantities that are to be found the next morning all over the surface of 

 the earth, but particularly on the waters, is astonishing ; for their wings are 

 only calculated to carry them a few hours, and after the rising of the sun 

 not one in a thousand is to be found with four wings, unless the morning 

 continues rainy, when here and there a solitary being is seen winging its 

 way from one place to another, as if solicitous only to avoid its numerous 

 enemies, particularly various species of ants which are hunting on every 

 spray, on every leaf, and in every possible place, for this unhappy race, of 

 which probaWy not a pair in many millions get into a place of safety, fulfil 

 the first law of nature, and lay the foundation of a new community. 



