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SANTAREM 



to the white ants. An examination of these tubular 

 passages or arcades in any part of the district, or a peep 

 into one of the tumuli, reveals always a throng of eager, 

 busy creatures. I became very much interested in these 

 insects while staying at Santarem, where many circum- 

 stances favoured the study of their habits, and examined 

 several hundred colonies in endeavouring to clear up 

 obscure points in their natural history. Very little, up 

 to that date, had been recorded of the constitution and 

 economy of their coro.munities, owing doubtless to their 

 not being found in northern and central Europe, and, 

 therefore, not within reach of European observers. I will 

 give a short summary of my observations, and with this 

 we shall have done with Santarem and its neighbourhood.^ 

 White ants are small, pale-coloured, soft-bodied insects, 

 having scarcely anything in common with true ants, ex- 

 cept their consisting, in each species and family, of several 

 distinct orders of individuals or castes which live together 

 in populous, organized communities. In both there are, 

 besides the males and females, a set of individuals of no 

 fully-developed sex, immensely more numerous than their 

 brothers and sisters, whose task is to work and care for 

 the young brood. In true ants this class of the community 

 consists of undeveloped females, and when it comprises, 

 as is the case in many species, individuals of different 

 structure, the functions of these do not seem to be rigidly 

 defined. The contrary happens in the Termites, and this 

 perhaps shows that the organization of their communities 

 has reached a higher stage, the division of labour being 

 more complete. The neuters in these wonderful insects 

 are always divided into two classes — fighters and workers ; 

 both are blind, and each keeps to its own task ; the one 

 to build, make covered roads, nurse the young brood 

 from the egg upwards, take care of the king and queen, 

 who are the progenitors of the whole colony, and secure 

 the exit of the males and females, when they acquire 

 wings and fly out to pair and disseminate the race : the 



^ My original notes on the Termites, comprising all details, 

 were sent to Professor Westwood (Oxford) in 1854 and 1855 5 

 they were not printed in England, but have been translated 

 into German, and published by Dr. Hagen, with his monograph 

 of the family, in the Linncea Ento7?iologica, 12 Band, Stettin, 

 1858, p. 207, ff. 



