414 



INSECTS. 



[Chap. XII. 



times its usual and proportionate bulk, and presenting 

 the appearance of a mass of shapeless pulp. From this 

 great progenitrix proceed the myriads that people the 

 subterranean hive, consisting, like the communities of 

 the genuine ants, of labourers and soldiers, which are 

 destined never to acquire a fuller development than 

 that of larvae, and the perfect insects which in due time 

 become invested with wings and take their departing 

 flight from the cave. But their new equipment seems 

 only destined to facilitate their dispersion from the 

 parent nest, which takes place at dusk ; and almost as 

 quickly as they leave it they divest themselves of their 

 ineffectual wings, waving them impatiently and twisting 

 them in every direction till they become detached and 

 drop off, and the swarm, within a few hours of their 

 emancipation, become a prey to the night-jars and bats, 

 which are instantly attracted to them as they issue in a 

 cloud from the ground. I am not prepared to say that 

 the other insectivorous birds would not gladly make 

 a meal of the termites, but, seeing that in Ceylon their 

 numbers are chiefly kept in check by the crepuscular 

 birds, it is observable, at least as a coincidence, that 

 the dispersion of the swarm generally takes place at 

 twilight Those that escape the caprimulgi fall a 

 prey to the crows, on the morning succeeding their 

 flight. 



The strange peculiarity of the omnivorous ravages of 

 the white ants is that they shrink from the light ; in all 

 their expeditions for providing food they construct a 

 covered pathway of moistened clay, and their galleries 

 above ground extend to an incredible distance from the 

 central nest. No timber, except ebony and ironwood, 

 which are too hard, and those which are strongly im- 



