302 INSECT ARCHITECTUKE. 



for them, they lay the foundation of another at a few 

 inches' distance. They sometimes, but not often, 

 begin the second before the first is finished, and a 

 third before they have completed the second. Five 

 or six of these singular turrets in a group may be 

 seen in the thick woods at the foot of a tree. They 

 are so very strongly built, that, in case of violence, 

 they will sooner tear up the gravel and solid heart of 

 their foundation than break in the middle. When 

 any of them happen to be thus thrown down, the 

 insects do not abandon them : but, using their over- 

 turned column as a basis, they run up another per- 

 pendicularly from it, to the usual height, fastening 

 the under part at the same time to the ground, to 

 render it the more secure. 



The interior of a turret is pretty equally divided 

 into innumerable cells, irregular in shape, but usually 

 more or less angular, generally quadrangular or 

 pentagonal, though the angles are not well defined. 

 Each shell has at least two entrances ; but there are 

 no galleries, arches, nor wooden nurseries, as in the 

 nests of the warrior (T. bellicosus). The two species 

 which build turret-nests are very different in size, 

 and the dimensions of the nests differ in proportion. 



The White Ants of Trees. 



Latreille's species of white ant (Termes lucifuqus, 

 Rossi), formerly mentioned as found in the south of 

 Europe, appear to have more the habits of the jet- 

 ant, described page 279, than their congeners of the 

 tropics. ' They live in the interior of the trunks of 

 trees, the wood of which they eat, and form their 

 habitations of the galleries which they thus excavate. 

 M. Latreille says they appear to be furnished with an 

 acid for the purpose of softening the wood, the odour 

 of which is exceedingly pungent. They prefer the 



