404 THE INSECT WORLD. 
the Order in which their conformation places them. In fact, they 
live in very numerous societies, and build very solid and very 
extensive dwelling-places—quite Cyclopean or Titanic works in 
comparison to the tiny dimensions and weak and feeble appearance 
of the insect. 
Many travellers have spoken of these insects. They are met 
with in the Savannahs of North America, in Guyana, in Africa, in 
New Holland, and even in Europe, whither they have been im- 
ported. M. de Prefontaine relates that, when he was travelling in 
Guyana, he saw the negroes besieging certain strange buildings, 
which he calls ant-hills. They dared not attack them except from 
a distance and with fire-arms, although they had taken the precau- 
tion of digging all round them a little fosse filled with water, in 
which the besieged would be drowned if they made a sortie. These 
were the termites’ nests. 
Perhaps it is to termites Herodotus alludes when he speaks of 
ants which inhabit Bactria, and which, larger than a fox, eat a 
pound of meat a day.* Retired in the sandy deserts, these gigantic 
insects hollow out (says he) subterranean dwellings, and raise 
mounds of golden sand, which the Indians carry away at the peril 
of their lives. Pliny, who relates the same fables, adds that there 
were to be seen in the Temple of Hercules the horns of these ants. 
Even in our own days some travellers have repeated absurd 
fables about termites. They have attributed to them a venom 
which one cannot breathe without being poisoned; they have said 
that a single bite was enough to cause a mortal fever. The truth, 
as it is revealed to us by conscientious observers, is still stranger 
than these fictions or errors. The termites present curious modi- 
fications, on the nature of which naturalists are not agreed. 
There, are, in the first place, the perfect insects, males and females, 
which are provided with wings; then there are the neuters, 
which are divided into soldiers, whose duty it is to defend the 
nest, and into workers, upon whom devolve the architectural 
works and household cares. These last are smaller than the 
soldiers. Latreille and some other naturalists think that these 
workers are the larvee of the termites. Smeathman thinks that the 
* De Quatrefages, “ Souvenirs d’un Naturaliste,” in 18mo. Paris, 1854. Tome ii. 
Pp. 377. 
