NEUROPTERA. 413 
which the brothers Poupet, rich ship-owners, caused bales of goods 
to come from St. Domingo to Rochefort, to La Rochelle, and to 
other places in that neighbourhood which possess storehouses. The 
ravages which the termites have committed in the towns of La 
Saintonge are really frightful. Like Valencia, in New Grenada, 
these towns will find themselves one of these days suspended over 
catacombs. At Tournay-Charente, the floor of a dining-room fell 
in, and the Amphytrion and his guests tumbled together into the 
cellar. There may be seen in the galleries of the Museum of 
Natural History of Paris, the wooden columns which supported 
this room, and which were preserved by Audouin, who had been 
sent on a mission to report on the damages done. Audouin also 
selected, as an object of curiosity, a lady’s bridal veil, which had 
been entirely riddled with holes by the termites. 
At la Rochelle these insects took possession of the prefect’s 
house (built by the brothers Poupet), and of the Arsenal. There 
they invaded offices, apartments, court, and garden. They could 
not drive in a stake, or leave a plank in the garden, but it was 
attacked the next day. One fine morning the archives of the 
department were found destroyed without there being the smallest 
trace of the damage to be seen on the exterior. The termites had 
mined through the wood-work, pierced the card-board, eaten up 
the parchments and the papers of the administration, but had 
always scrupulously respected the upper leaf and edges of all the 
leaves. It was by mere chance that a clerk, less superficial than 
his colleagues, one fine day raised one of the leaves which hid this 
detritus, and thus discovered the destruction of the archives. All 
the papers of the prefecture are now shut up in boxes of zine. 
These termites do not venture, any more than their congeners, 
into the light of day. These terrible miners always envelop 
themselves in obscurity, and construct on all sides covered galle- 
ries as they advance into a building. M. Blanchard and M. de 
Quatrefages saw m La Rochelle the galleries made by them. They 
are tubes formed of agglutinated material, which are stuck along 
the walls in the cellars and the apartments, or else suspended to 
the roof like stalactites. Certain parts of Agen and of Bordeaux 
begin also to suffer from the ravages of these insects. The danger 
appears to be imminent. 
