PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 37 
kind of mould, amongst which arise numerous globules 
about the size of a small pin’s head. This is probably a 
species of Mucor ; and by Mr. Konig, who found them 
also in nests of an East-Indian species of Termes, is con- 
jectured to be the food of the larvee. 
~The royal cell has besides some soldiers in it, a kind 
of body guard to the royal pair that inhabit it; and the 
surrounding apartments contain always many both la- 
bourers and soldiers in waiting, that they may succes- 
sively attend upon and defend the common father and 
mother, on whose safety depend the happiness and even 
existence of the whole community; and whom these 
faithful subjects never abandon even in the last distress. 
The manner in which the Termites feed the young 
brood, before they commence their active life and are 
admitted to share in the labours of the nest, has not, as 
far as I know, been recorded by any writer: I shall 
therefore leave them in their nurseries, and introduce 
you to the bustling scene which these creatures exhibit 
in their first state after they are become useful. ‘To do 
this, in vain should I carry you to one of their nests— 
you would scarcely see a single one stirring—though, 
perhaps, under your feet there would be millions going 
and returning by a thousand different ways. Unless I 
possessed the power of Asmodeus in Le Diable Boiteuz, 
of showing you their houses and covered ways with their 
roofs removed, you would return home as wise as you 
came ; for these little busy creatures are taught by Pro- 
vidence always to work under cover. If they have to 
travel over a rock or up a tree, they vault with a coping 
of earth the route they mean to pursue, and they form 
subterranean paths and tunnels, some of a diameter 
