WHITE ANTS 



tected the workers discharging a liquid from their mouths 

 into the cells. . The growth of the young family is very 

 rapid, and seems to be completed within the year : the 

 greatest event of Termite life then takes place, namely, 

 the coming of age of the winged males and females, and 

 their exit from the hive. 



It is curious to watch a Termitarium when this exodus 

 is taking place. The workers are set in the greatest 

 activity, as if they were aware that the very existence of 

 their species depended on the successful emigration and 

 marriages of their brothers and sisters. They clear the 

 way for their bulky but fragile bodies, and bite holes 

 through the outer walls for their escape. The exodus is 

 not completed in one day, but continues until all the males 

 and females have emerged from their pupa integuments, 

 and flown away. It takes place on moist, close evenings, 

 or on cloudy mornings : they are much attracted by the 

 lights in houses, and fly by myriads into chambers, filling 

 the air with a loud rustling noise, and often falling in such 

 numbers that they extinguish the lamps. Almost as soon 

 as they touch ground they wriggle ofl their wings, to aid 

 which operation there is a special provision in the structure 

 of the organs, a seam running across near their roots and 

 dividing the horny nervures. To prove that this singular 

 mutilation was voluntary, on the part of the insects, I 

 repeatedly tried to detach the wings by force, but could 

 never succeed whilst they were fresh, for they always tore 

 out by the roots. Few escape the innumerable enemies 

 which are on the alert at these times to devour them ; 

 ants, spiders, lizards, toads, bats, and goat-suckers. The 

 waste of life is astonishing. The few that do survive pair 

 and become the kings and queens of new colonies. I 

 ascertained this by finding single pairs a few days after the 

 exodus, which I always examined and proved to be males 

 and females, estabHshed under a leaf, a clod of earth, or 

 wandering about under the edges of new tumuli. The 

 females are then not gravid. I once found a newly- 

 married pair in a fresh cell tended by a few workers. 



The office of Termites in these hot countries is to hasten 

 the decomposition of the woody and decaying parts of 

 vegetation. In this they perform what in temperate 

 latitudes is the task of other orders of insects. Many 

 points in their natural history still remain obscure. We 

 have seen that there are males and females, which grow, 



