HABITATIONS OF INSECTS, 511 



I close my account of the habitations of insects with 

 the description of those constructed by the Termites, a 

 tribe alluded to in former letters. 



The different species, which are numerous, build 

 nests of very various forms. Some ( T. atrox and mor- 

 dax, Sm.) construct upon the ground a cylindrical tur- 

 ret of clay about three quarters of a yard high, sur- 

 rounded by a projecting conical roof, so as in shape con- 

 siderably to resemble a mushroom, and composed in- 

 teriorly of innumerable cells of various figures and 

 dimensions. Others, as T. Destructor, F., T. Arborum, 

 Sm.), prefer a more elevated site, and build their nests, 

 which are of different sizes, from that of a hat to 

 that of a sugar-cask, and composed of pieces of wood 

 glued together, amongst the branches of trees often 

 seventy or eighty* feet high. But by far the most cu- 

 rious habitations, and to which, therefore, I shall con- 

 fine a minute description, are those formed by the 

 Termes fatalis {T. bellicosus, Sm.), a species very com- 

 mon in Guinea and other parts of the coast of Africa, 

 of whose proceedings we have a very particular and in- 

 teresting account in the 71st volume of the Philosophi- 

 cal Transactions, from the pen of Mr. Smeathman. 



These nests are formed entirely of clay, and are ge- 

 nerally twelve feet high and broad in proportion, so that 

 when a cluster of them, as is often the case, are placed 

 together, they may be taken for an Indian village, and 

 are in fact sometimes larger than the huts which the na- 

 tives inhabit. The first process in the erection of these 

 singular structures, is the elevation of two or three tur- 



