Bs FS PN als ea ieee er | 
By aa 
aeaa a 
1876.] 
The Probable Danger from White Ants. 401 
THE PROBABLE DANGER FROM WHITE ANTS. 
BY DR. H. A. HAGEN. 
| INVITE the reader to imagine himself in a forest in the 
interior of Brazil. There is a clearing in the forest. A small 
valley covered with underbrush, and containing a fresh water 
pool, opens before our eyes. Here and there are scattered little 
hills several feet high, more or less covered with grass. Thick 
clouds rise slowly and make the close air still more oppressive ; 
the rainy season, the disagreeable summer of the tropics, is ap- 
proaching. All seems quiet, but suddenly one’s attention is 
ie by a strange activity beginning in one of the little 
ills, 
As if by witchcraft, a cleft opens in the middle of the hill. A 
little brown insect comes out with folded wings, followed by two, 
three, four, and more, in one row, as many as the quickly widen- 
ing cleft will allow to passat once. Like a silver ribbon the train 
winds down the hill, for the membrane of the wings glimmers like 
mother-of-pearl. These insects take a course just opposite to the 
wind, as this is the only way in which their delicate wings can 
resist the pressure of the air. More and more, without interrup- 
tion, appear hastily, as if driven out of the hill. Other similar 
clefts have been opened, from which similar trains throng out. 
The little hill Seems to discharge its living lava like a volcano. 
ut the most curious spectacle is seen near the cleft. There 
appear little wingless creatures with enormous heads and hooked 
Jaws, which they move threateningly, to defend the entrance to 
their subterranean chambers, and to accelerate the march of their 
~~ el who have been turned out. At last the rows grow 
smaller and thinner and the clefts begin to close as if walled up by 
visible hands. Tn the mean time the swarm has tried its wings, 
and rises steadily into the air, keeping close together near the 
tops of the trees and then gradually falling to the earth. Pretty 
“on the number of the falling insects increases, and we notice 
that they are always in couples, male and female, running quickly 
Mout and trying to get rid of their loosely attached wings. 
: : Continuing to observe the strange kind of emigration of these 
a commonly called white ants, we find that only a few of 
ese myriads live till the next morning. All those that have 
not been eaten by the large numbers of mammals, birds, and 
aa “ager to swallow. them have been caught by the busy 
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