HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



431 



by the inhabitants. The upper portion or dome, which is 

 very strong and solid, is left empty, serving principally as a 

 defence from the vicissitudes of the weather, and the attacks 

 of natural or accidental enemies, and to keep up in the lower 

 part a genial warmth and moisture necessary to the hatching 

 of the eggs and cherishing of the young ones. The inhabited 

 portion is occupied by the royal chamber, or habitation of the 

 king and queen, the nurseries for the young, the store-houses 

 for food, and innumerable galleries, passages, and empty 

 rooms, arranged according to the following plan. 



In the centre of the building, just under the apex, and 

 nearly on a level with the surface of the ground, is placed the 

 royal chamber, an arched vault of a semi-oval shape, or not 

 unlike a long oven ; at first not above an inch long, but en- 

 larged as the queen increases in bulk to the length of eight 

 inches or more. In this apartment the king and queen con- 

 stantly reside ; and from the smallness of the entrances, which 

 are barely large enough to admit their more diminutive sub- 

 jects, can never possibly come out ; thus, like many human 

 potentates, purchasing their sovereignty at the dear rate of 

 the sacrifice of liberty. Immediately adjoining the royal 

 chamber, and surrounding it on all sides to the extent of a 

 foot or more, are placed what Mr. Smeathman calls the royal 

 apartments, an inextricable labyrinth of innumerable arched 

 rooms of different shapes and sizes, either opening into each 

 other or communicating by common passages, and intended 

 for the accommodation of the soldiers and attendants, of whom 

 many thousands are always in waiting on their royal master 

 and mistress. Next to the royal apartments come the nurse- 

 ries and the magazines. The former are invariably occupied 

 by the eggs and young ones, and in the infant state of the 

 nest are placed close to the royal chamber ; but when the 

 queen's augmented size requires a larger apartment, as well 

 as additional rooms for the increased number of attendants 

 wanted to remove her eggs, the small nurseries are taken to 

 pieces, rebuilt at a greater distance, a size bigger, and their 

 number increased at the same time. In substance they differ 

 from all the other apartments, being formed of particles of 



