296 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



(who is, at full size, a thousand times the weight of 

 • king) can never possibly go out, but remain close 

 prisoners. 



The royal chamber, if in a large hillock, is sur- 

 rounded by a countless number of others, of different 

 sizes, shapes, and dimensions ; but all of them arched 

 in one way or another — sometimes elliptical or oval. 

 These either open into each other, or communicate by 

 passages as wide as, and are evidently made for, the 

 soldiers and attendants, of whom great numbers are 

 necessary, and always in waiting. These apartments 

 are joined by the magazines and nurseries. The 

 former are chambers of clay, and are always well filled 

 with provisions, which, to the naked eye, seem to 

 consist of the raspings of wood, and plants which the 

 termites destroy ; but are found by the microscope to 

 be principally the gums or inspissated juices of plants. 

 These are thrown together in little masses, some of 

 which are finer than others, and resemble the sugar 

 about preserved fruits ; others are like tears of gum, 

 one quite transparent, another like amber, a third 

 brown, and a fourth quite opaque, as we see often in 

 parcels of ordinary gums. These magazines are 

 intermixed with the nurseries, which are buildings 

 totally different from the rest of the apartments ; for 

 these are composed entirely of wooden materials, 

 seemingly joined together with gums. Mr. Smeath- 

 man calls them the nurseries, because they are inva- 

 riably occupied by the eggs and young ones, which 

 appear at first in the shape of labourers, but white 

 as snow. These buildings are exceedingly compact, 

 and divided into many very small irregular shaped 

 chambers, not one of which is to be found of half an 

 inch in width. They are placed all round, and as 

 near as possible to the royal apartments. 



When the nest is in the infant state, the nurseries 

 are close to the royal chambers ; but as, in process 



