35 



NATURAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



The Termites or White Ants of 

 Africa. 



The scientific traveler, Max Buch- 

 ner, tells us how we may picture to 

 ourselves the savannas of Central 

 Africa: "First sprinkle a few 

 million brick-red, irregular pyra- 

 mids of the termite or white ant 

 over a brick-red surface, in the 

 proportion of, at least, five to the 

 hectare. Next take about four 

 times this number of trees, and dis- 

 tribute them so that there shall be 

 twenty, more or less, to the hec- 

 tare. Then distribute, in like pro- 

 portion, an equal number of Bush- 

 men. Finally, fill up the interven- 

 ing spaces with clumbs of high 

 grass, just far enough apart to ren- 

 der visible the red earth between. 

 Do this and you will have a faith- 

 ful representation of the open Afri- 

 can forest, but little influenced by 

 the destructive hand of man." 



The presence of these white ant 

 pyramids is the characteristic fea- 

 ture of the African landscape. The 

 builders of these structures are not 

 ants; but belong to the much small- 

 er family of termites. There is 

 scarcely an insect so thoroughly ha- 

 ted by man as the termite, and the 

 hatred is fully justified. "There 

 are regions in Africa," writes a 

 traveler, "of which it is safe to say 

 that if a man with a wooden leg 

 were to lie down to sleep at night, 

 othing of the leg would be visible 

 in the morning save a little saw- 

 dust." The termites gnaw away 

 everything; the balconies and posts 

 of the houses, tables, chairs, ward- 

 robes, books, leather, cloth — in 

 fact, little comes amiss to them ex- 

 cept iron — though, strange to say, 

 on the authority of Franz Leusch- 

 ner, they will not touch the Euro- 

 pean pine and fir timber brought 

 to Africa for building purposes. 

 The evidences of the destructive 

 labors of the termites are to be 

 seen on every side; but the creat- 

 ures themselves are rarely seen. 

 They steal sneakingly to their la- 

 bors. They are all blind, with the 

 exception of the king and queen, 

 and all defenseless except the sol- 

 dier caste, which constitutes about 

 one or two per cent, of the popula- 

 tion. To escape starvat'on they 

 must leave their subterranean 

 homes or pyramids in search of 

 dead wood, and, because of their 

 blindness, they render themselves 

 invisible as the best mode of de- 

 fense. 



If one has an opportunity to ob- 

 serve the insect in his work of de- 

 struction, the sight is really a most 



remarkable one. Here is an open- 

 ing in the earth. A little head ap- 

 pears in it, with a pellet of clay in 

 the jaws; the pellet is laid down, 

 and soon another head appears 

 with another pellet covered with a 

 vicid salivary secretion, by means 

 of which the pellets are fastened 

 together. In this manner, by in- 

 cessant toil, a small clay tube is 

 constructed, and prolonged until 

 it strikes against a piece of dead 

 timber, the soldier termites guard- 

 ing the opening from hostile insects 

 the while. The termites then gnaw 

 their way into the timber, eating 

 or removing the whole inner con- 

 tents, leaving only a thin outer 

 shell. These tubular passages, 

 made by the termites, are even 

 more wonderful than their pyra- 

 mids. They are about the diame- 

 ter of a small gas pipe, and are fre- 

 quently carried in a zigzag course 

 by the termites up the trunk of a 

 tree in their search for a dry 

 branch. One may travel for hours 

 and not find a single tree without 

 one of these passages. 



In spite of their destructive pro- 

 clivities, the termites perform much 

 useful work. There is a certain 

 neatness in the open park-like 

 scenery of Central Africa which 

 strikes one immediately. It gives 

 one the impression that it is scrup- 

 ulously swept and cared for, and 

 one asks himself, involuntarily, 

 what good fairy maintains such 

 perfect neatness and order in the 

 wilds? Ihere are indeed, forest 

 keepers of various species, who 

 are continually occupied in the 

 removal of all dead animal matter, 

 from the fallen elephant to the 

 dead fly, and who bury in the puri- 

 fying earth what they cannot con- 

 sume. What these do for animal 

 remains, the termite does for the 

 vegetable kingdom. Every .trunk, 

 branch, twig or old bark layer the 

 moment it is smitten with death, is 

 attacked by the white ants who 

 subsist on it, and whose numbers 

 are limited only by their means of 

 subsistence. The balance between 

 them and the vegetable kingdom is 

 thus maintained by natural law. 

 If we examine their pyramids, we 

 find that the interior, contains in- 

 numerable chambers connected by 

 passages. There are store rooms, 

 breeding rooms and nurseries. 

 The chamber of the queen is near 

 the ground, and frequently below 

 the surface. Each of these settle- 

 ments may be taken as represent- 

 ing a kingdom whose people are 

 divided into distinctive castes, with 

 division of labor. First there are 

 those|engaged in the perpetuation 



of the species. There is only one 

 queen in each settlement, and she 

 when fertilized, is enlarged to a 

 cylindrical shaped figure, several 

 centimeters long, with nothing in 

 her appearance, except her head, 

 to suggest what she is. She is 

 carefully watched and tended and 

 feed by her subjects, and lays eggs 

 upon eggs, many thousand a day, 

 and that for months continuously. 

 The other casts, are the soldiers, 

 recognizable by their massive 

 heads, and the workers, with the 

 little round heads. The later pro- 

 vide the food and nurse the young, 

 and know how to feed the nymphs, 

 that they can develop a worker in- 

 to a queen if there is occasion for 

 one, that is, if the reigning queen 

 should die. 



The great work of the white ants, 

 analogous to the labor of worms in 

 temperate climates, is to bring np 

 the subsoil clay to the surface, 

 where it sooner or later mingles 

 with the surface soil, and perhaps 

 gets washed away to form new val- 

 leys. One must study the works 

 of these little creatures carefully 

 to form an idea of their extent and 

 importance. — Die Gartenlaube, 

 Leipzig, No. cj; Translated and con- 

 densed for the Literary Digest by C. 

 Falkenhorst. 



Dust in Nature. 



Without dust there would be no 

 blue firmament; the heaven would 

 be blacker than we see it on moon- 

 less nights. On this black back- 

 ground the glowing sun would 

 shine out sharply, and the same 

 sharp contrast of intense light and 

 deep shadow would characterize 

 the surface of the earth. There 

 would be nothing to subdue this 

 sharp contrast but the moon and 

 stars, which would remain visible 

 by day. The illumination of the 

 earth would be simila^ to that 

 which we observe when looking at 

 the moon through a telescope; for 

 the moon has no atmospheric en- 

 velope, and, consequently, no dust 

 in suspension. It is due entirely 

 to the dust that we enjoy our soft, 

 uniformly diffused daylight, for 

 which our eyes are specially adapt- 

 ed; and it is the dust which contri- 

 butes so much to the beauty of the 

 landscape. But while the forego- 

 ing explains how the dust makes 

 the whole vault of heaven light, it 

 does not explain why it is chiefly 

 the blue rays of the white sunlight 

 that are reflected, and only to a 

 small extent the green, yellow and 

 red rays. This is dependent on 



