° INSECTS. 115 
heads and powerful jaws. The African termites * build 
immense nests (Fig. 138), and the queen is often 40,000 
times larger than the workers. 
VALUE.—Eaten in Central Africa, and the nests used as fuel. 
"a! ig ~ = 3 
Fic. 138.—White ants, showing enormous queen, male, worker, and soldier, 
and section of nest, showing the queen’s cell. 
* Their hills have been seen twelve feet high and nearly one hun- 
dred feet in circumference. They are divided into various apartments, 
the semi-egg-shaped cell in the center containing the imprisoned queen 
who grows sometimes to a length of six inches. The workers attend 
the royal chamber, removing the eggs that are laid by millions, and 
placing them in nurseries or cemented cells made for the purpose. The 
workers do great damage, and in the Isle of France a new building was 
ruined in a few months by them. In Colombo, Ceylon, a large house 
fell completely in pieces, the result of their ravages, 
