578 WHITE ANTS. 



its fore legs a pellet of soft plaster about the size of a pea. When 

 it has fixed upon a convenient spot for its dwelling, it forms a cell 

 about the same length as its body, plastering the walls so as to 

 be quite thin and smooth inside. When this is finished, all except 

 a round hole, it brings seven or eight caterpillars or spiders, each 

 of which is rendered insensible, but not killed, by the fluid from 

 its sting. These it deposits in the cell, and then one of its own 

 larvae, which, as it grows, finds food quite fresh. The insects are 

 in a state of coma, but the presence of vitality prevents putridity, 

 or that drying up which would otherwise take place in this climate. 

 By the time the young insect is full grown and its wings com- 

 pletely developed, the food is done. It then pierces the wall of 

 its cell at the former door, or place last filled up by its parent, 

 flies off, and begins life for itself. The plasterer is a most useful 

 insect, as it acts as a check on the inordinate increase of cater- 

 pillars and spiders. It may often be seen with a caterpillar or 

 even a cricket much larger than itself, but they lie perfectly still 

 after the injection of chloroform, and the plasterer, placing a row 

 of legs on each side of the body, uses both legs and wings in trail- 

 ing the victim along. The fluid in each case is, I suppose, designed 

 to cause insensibility, and likewise act as an antiseptic, the death 

 of the victims being without pain. 



Without these black soldier-ants the country would be overrun 

 by the white ants ; they are so extremely prolific, and nothing can 

 exceed the energy with which they work. They perform a most 

 important part in the economy of nature by burying vegetable 

 matter as quickly beneath the soil as the ferocious red ant does 

 dead animal substances. The white ant keeps generally out of 

 sight, and works under galleries constructed by night to screen 

 them from the observation of birds. At some given signal, how- 

 ever, I never could ascertain what, they rush out by hundreds, 

 and the sound of their mandibles cutting grass into lengths may 

 be heard like a gentle wind murmuring through the leaves of the 

 trees. They drag these pieces to the doors of their abodes, and 

 after some hours' toil leave off work, and many of the bits of 

 grass may be seen collected around the orifice. They continue 

 out of sight for perhaps a month, but they are never idle. On 

 one occasion, a good bundle of grass was laid down for my bed 

 on a spot which was quite smooth and destitute of plants. The 



