INSECTS. 
481 
working insects ; for soldiers, or those that per- 
form no other labour than such as is necessary in 
the defence of the nests, and for the young and 
the ova ; and, lastly, for stores or magazines. 
These animals destroy furniture, victuals, clothes, 
houses, and are able to cut through trunks of 
large trees in a few weeks. And it is worthy of 
particular remark, that the abdomen of the queen 
ant, in the impregnated state, becomes of so enor- 
mous a size as to be two thousand times the bulk 
of the rest of the body. It is then an oblong 
matrix full of ova. When these are perfectly 
formed, they begin to be protruded, and they 
come forth so quickly, that about sixty in a mi- 
nute, or upwards of eighty thousand in twenty- 
four hours, are deposited. 
Bruce, in his travels, describes a fly under the 
name Tsaltsalya^ which appears to belong to the 
tabanus tribe. As soon as this pest appears, and 
their buzzing noise is heard, all the cattle forsake 
their food, and run wildly about the plain till they 
die, worn out with fatigue, terror, and hunger. 
Camels, and even elephants and rhinoceroses, 
though the two last coat themselves with a crust 
of mud, are attacked by this formidable insect. 
The pain its bite produces is so severe, that even 
the lion flies its approach. 
Several species of bee, particularly that named 
apis fasciatay are extensively cultivated in many 
VOL. II, H h 
