60 DARWINISM AND HUMAN LIFE 



Escherich does, however, admit that the termites 

 have some agricultural importance, and he points 

 out that there are other services to be put to 

 the credit side of their account. They prune off 

 wood that has begun to go ; they destroy rotting 

 things, including the bodies of small animals ; 

 they make for cleanliness and health. In some 

 low-lying tracts, as Silvestri has shown, there are 

 dry stretches, " termite islands," which have 

 been gradually built up from the broken-down 

 remains of termitaries. Nor should it be forgotten 

 that the white ants are often used as food. On 

 the other hand, Escherich does not hesitate to 

 rank them as among the great hindrances to 

 the spread of civilisation. They insidiously devour 

 everything wooden, from the telegraph-post to 

 the wooden butt of the gun hanging against the 

 wall, from books in the library to corks in the 

 cellar. There does not seem sufficiently precise 

 information in regard to the living plants that 

 they attack, and no safe general statement can be 

 made except that their appetite is large and 

 catholic. 



With a centre in earthworms, what a variety of 

 interests must be included within the radius of 

 their life and work! — centipedes, birds, moles, 

 seedlings, man. The same is true of termites, 

 and two further illustrations may be given. Ob- 

 servers have reported about thirty different species 

 of termites with the habit of feeding on fungi 

 grown within the termitary on specially constructed 

 mazy beds. The habit is interesting in many ways ; 

 for instance, because the fungi afford a supply of 

 nitrogenous material which is scarce in the ordinary 

 diet of wood, and also because a similar habit 



