i m $4 THE WHITE ANTS. 



numerable enemies, not only on the day of the 

 massacre of almost all their race, but for a long time 

 after, will, I hope, justify me in the use of the term 

 election. The little industrious creatures immedi- 

 ately inclose them in a small chamber of clay suit- 

 able to their size, into which at first they leave but 

 one entrance, large enough for themselves and the 

 soldiers to go in and out at, but much too little for 

 either of the royal pair to use ; and, when necessity 

 obliges them to make more entrances, they are never 

 larger ; so that, of course, the voluntary subjects 

 charge themselves with the task of providing for the 

 offspring of their sovereigns, as well as of working 

 and fighting for them, until they have raised a pro- 

 geny capable at least of dividing the task with them." 

 About this time a most extraordinary change 

 takes place in the queen. The abdomen begins to 

 extend and enlarge to such an enormous size, that 

 an old queen will sometimes have it so much in- 

 creased as to be near two thousand times the bulk of 

 the rest of her body, The skin between the seg- 

 ments of the abdomen extends in every direction ; 

 and at last the segments are removed to the distance 

 of half an inch from each other, though at first the 

 whole length of the abdomen was not half an inch. 

 When the insect is upward of two years old, the 

 abdomen is increased to three inches' in length, and 

 it is sometimes seen near twice that size. It is now 

 of an irregular oblong shape, and is become one 

 vast matrix full of eggs, which make long circum- 

 volutions through an innumerable quantity of very 

 minute vessels, that circulate round the inside in a 



