INSECTS 



wherever the food supply attracts it, recognizing no ties 

 or responsibilities to others of its species and contending 

 with its fellows, often in deadly combat, for whatever 



ad 



vantage it can gam. 



Fig. 76. Termite work in a piece of 

 wood. Tunnels following the grain are 

 made by species of Reticulilermes, the com- 

 mon underground termites of the eastern 

 United States 



A few animals are communistic 

 or social in their mode 

 of life; notably so are 

 man and certain insects. 

 The best-known exam- 

 ples of social insects are 

 the ants and some of the 

 bees and wasps. The 

 termites, however, con- 

 stitute another group of 

 social insects ot no less 

 interest than the ants 

 and bees, but whose hab- 

 its have not been so long 

 observed. 



More familiarly to 

 some people, termites are 

 known as "white ants." 

 But since they are not 

 ants, nor always white 

 or even pale in color, we 

 should discard this mis- 

 leading and unjustifiable 

 appellation and learn to 

 know the termites by the 

 name under which thev 

 are universally known to 

 entomologists. 



Jf you split open an 

 old board that has been 

 lying almost anywhere 

 on the ground for some 

 time, or if, when out in 

 the woods, you cut into 



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