PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 343 



may then be distinguished from the blind larvae, pupae, and neuters, by 

 their large and prominent eyes.^ 



The first establishment of a colony of Termites takes place in the 

 followino- manner. In the evening, soon after the first tornado, which at 

 the latter end of the dry season proclaims the approach of the ensuing 

 rains, these animals, having attained to their perfect state, in which they 

 are furnished and adorned with two pair of wings, emerge from their clay- 

 built citadels by myriads and myriads to seek their fortune. Borne on 

 these ample wings, and carried by the wind, they fill the air, entering the 

 houses, extinguishing the lights, and even sometimes being driven on board 

 the ships that are not far from the shore. The next morning they are 

 discovered covering the surface of the earth and waters : deprived of the 

 wings which before enabled them to avoid their numerous enemies, and 

 which are only calculated to carry them a few hours, and looking like large 

 maggots ; from the most active, industrious, and rapacious, they are now 

 become the most helpless and cowardly beings in nature, and the prey of 

 innumerable enemies, to the smallest of which they make not the least 

 resistance. Insects, especially ants, which are always on the hunt for them, 

 leaving no place unexplored; birds, reptiles, beasts, and even man him- 

 self, look upon this event as their harvest, and, as you have been told 

 before, make them their food ; so that scarcely a single pair in many 

 millions get into a place of safety, fulfil the first law of nature, and lay the 

 foundation of a new community. At this time they are seen running 

 upon the ground, the male after the female, and sometimes two chasing 

 one, and contending with great eagerness, regardless of the innumerable 

 dangers that surround them, who shall win the prize. 



The workers, who are continually prowling about in their covered ways, 

 occasionally meet with one of these pairs, and, being impelled by their 

 instinct, pay them homage, and they are elected as it were to be king and 

 queen, or rather father and mother, of a new colony^ : all that are not so 

 fortunate inevitably perish ; and, considering the infinite host of their 

 enemies, probably in the course of the following day. The workers as 

 soon as this election takes place, begin to inclose their new rulers in a 

 small chamber of clay, before described, suited to their size, the entrances 

 to which are only large enough to admit themselves and the neuters, but 

 much too small for the royal pair to pass through ; — so that their state 

 of royalty is a state of confinement, and so continues during the remainder 

 of their existence. The impregnation of the female is supposed to take 

 place after this confinement, and she soon begins to furnish the infant 

 colony with new inhabitants. The care of feeding her and her male 

 companion devolves upon the industrious larvae, who supply them both 

 with every thing that they want. As she increases in dimensions, they 



' The neuters in all respects bear a stronger analogy to the larvae than to the perfect 

 insects; and, after all, may possibly turn out to be larvae, perhaps of the males. Huber 

 seems to doubt their being neuters. Nouv. Obs. ii. 441. note *. Great differences of opinion 

 continue to exist amongst entomologists as to the real nature of the individuals above de- 

 scribed of this very anomalous tribe, for the details of which and of the arguments employed, 

 see Westwood, Mod. Classif. of Ins. ii. 15. 



* In this these animals vary from the usual instinct of the social Hymenoptera, the ants, 

 the wasps, and the humble bees — with whom the females lay the first foundations of the 

 colonies, unassisted by any neuters; — but in the swarms of the hive bee an election may 

 perhaps in some instances be said to take place. 



