a great distance from their habitations carry 
on a business of depreciation and destruction, 
scarcely credible but to those who have seen 
it. 
The termite^ resemble the ants also in their 
provident and diligent labour, but surpass 
them as well as the bees, wasps, beavers, and 
all other animals, in the arts oi building, as 
much as the Europeans excel the least culti- 
vated savages. It is more than probable they 
excel them as much in sagacity and the arts 
of government ; it is certain they shew more 
substantial instances of their ingenuity and 
industry than any other animals ; and do in 
fact lay up vast magazines of provisions and 
other stores ; a degree of prudence which has 
of late years been denied, perhaps without 
reason, to the ants. 
Their communities consist of one male and 
one female (who are generally the common 
parents of the whole, or greater part, of the 
rest); and of three order of insects, apparently 
of very different species, but really the same, 
which together compose great common- 
wealths, or rather monarchies, if we may be 
allowed the term. 
The different species of this genus resemble 
each other in form, in their manner of living, 
and in their good and bad qualities, but differ 
as much as birds in the manner of building 
their habitations or nests, and in the choice 
of the materials of which they compose them. 
There are some species which build upon 
the surface of the ground, or part above and 
part beneath ; and one or two species, per- 
haps more, that build on the stems or branches 
of trees, sometimes aloft at a vast height. 
Of every species there are three orders » 
first, the working insects, which, for brevity, 
we shall generally call labourers; next the 
fighting ones, or soldiers, which do no kind 
of labour ; and, last of all, the winged ones, 
or perfect insects, which are male and fe- 
male, and capable of propagation. 
The wests of the termes bellicosus are so 
numerous all over the island of Bananas, and 
the adjacent continent of Afiica, that it is 
scarcely possible to stand upon any open 
place, such as a rice-plantation, or other clear 
Spot, where one of these buildings is not to be 
seen within fifty paces, and frequently two or 
three are to be seen almost close to each 
other. In some parts near Senegal, as men- 
tioned by Mons. Adanson, tfieir number, 
mag litucle, and closeness of situation, make 
them appear like the villages of the natives. 
These buildings are usually termed hills, 
by natives as well as strangers, from their 
outward appearance, which is that of little 
hills more or less conical, generally pretty 
much iu the form of sugar-loaves, and about 
ten or twelve feet in perpendicular height 
above the common surface of the ground. 
These hills continue quite bare until they 
are six or eight feet high; but in time the 
dead barren clay, of which they are com- 
posed, becomes fertilized by the genial powe" 
of the elements in these prolific climates, arc! 
the addition of vegetable and other matters 
brought by the wind ; and in the second or 
third year, the hillock, if not over-shaded by 
trees, becomes, like the rest of the earth, 
almost covered with grass and other plants ; 
and in the dry season, when the herbage is 
burnt up by the rays of the sun, it is not much 
unlike a very large hay-cock. 
TERMES, 
Every one of these buildings consists of 
two distinct parts, the exterior and the inte- 
rior. The exterior is one large shell in the 
manner of a dome, large and strong enough 
to inclose and shelter the interior from the 
vicissitudes of the weather, and the inhabit- 
ants from the attacks of natural or accidental 
enemies. It is always, therefore, much 
stronger than the interior building, which is 
the habitable part, divided with a wonderful 
kind of regularity and contrivance into an 
amazing number of apartments for the resi- 
dence of the king and queen, and the nursing 
of their numerous progeny; or for maga- 
zines, which are always found well tilled with 
stores and provisions. 
From these habitations, galleries again as- 
cend, and lead out horizontally on every side, 
and are carried under ground near to the sur- 
face a vast distance : tor if you destroy all 
the nests within one hundred yards of your 
house, the inhabitants of those which are left 
unmolested farther off, will nevertheless carry 
on their subterraneous galleries, and invade 
the goods and merchandizes contained in it 
by sap and mine, and do great mischief if you 
are not very circumspect. 
It has been observed, that there are of 
every species of termites three orders ; of 
these orders the working insects or labourers 
are always the most numerous ; in the termes 
i bellicosus there seems to be at the least one 
hundred labourers to one of the fighting in- 
; sects or soldiers. They are in this state about 
j one-fourth of an inch long, and twenty-five 
j of them weigh about a grain ; so that they 
1 are not so large as some of our ants. The 
I second order, or soldiers, have a very dif- 
' ferent form from the labourers, and have 
i been by some authors supposed to be the 
males, and the former neuters; but they are, 
j in fact, the same insects, only they have un- 
! dergone a change of form, and approached 
; one degree nearer to the perfect state. They 
are now much larger, being half an inch long, 
I and equal in bulk to fifteen of the labourers. 
I There is now likewise a most remarkable cir- 
cumstance in the form of the head and mouth; 
j for in the former state the mouth is evidently 
calculated for gnawing and holding bodies ; 
i but in this state, the jaws being shaped just 
i like two very sharp awls, a little jagged, they 
I are incapable of any thing but piercing or 
wounding, for which purposes they are very 
effectual, being as hard as a crab’s claw, and 
placed in a strong horny head, which is of a 
nut-brown colour, and larger than all the 
rest of the body together, which seems to 
labour under great difficulty in carrying it ; 
on which account perhaps the animal is inca- 
pable of climbing up perpendicular surfaces. 
The third order, or the insect in its perfect 
state, varies its form still more than ever. 
The head, thorax, and abdomen, differ almost 
entirely from tire same parts in the labourers 
and soldiers; and, besides this, the animal 
is now furnished with four fine large brownish, 
transparent, wings, with which it is at the 
time of emigration tigyving its way in search 
of a new settlement. We may open twenty 
nests without finding one winged insect, for 
those are to be found only just before the 
commencement of the rainy season, when 
they undergo the last change, which is pre- 
parative to their colonization. 
In the winged state they have also much 
altered their size as well as form. Their 
7 si 
bodies now measure between six' and seven 
tenths of an inch in length, and their wings 
above two inches and a half from tip to tip, 
and they are equal in bulk to about thirty 
labourers, or two soldiers. They are now 
also furnished with two large eyes placed ou 
each side of the head, and very conspicuous : 
if they have any before, they are not easily 
to be distinguished. Probably in the two 
first states, their eyes, if they ’nave any, may- 
be small, like those of moles: for as they 
live, like these animals, always under ground, 
they have as little occasion for these organs, 
and it is not to be wondered at that we do 
not discover them ; but the case is much 
altered when they arrive at the winged state 
in which they are to roam, though but for a 
few hours, through the wide air, and explore 
new and distant regions. In this form the 
animal comes abroad during, or soon after, 
the first tornado, which, at the latter end of 
the dry season, proclaims the approach of the 
ensuing rains, and seldom waits for a second 
or third shower, if the first, as is generally 
the case, happens in the night, and brings 
much wet after it. 
The quantities that are to be found the 
next morningall over the surface of the earth, 
but particularly on the waters, are astonishing; 
for their wings are only calculated to carry 
them a few hours, and after the rising of the 
sun not one in a thousand is to be found with 
four wings, unless the morning; continues 
rainy, when here and there a solitary being 
is seen winging its way from one place to anr 
other, as if solicitous only to- avoid its nume- 
rous enemies, particularly various species of 
ants which are hunting on every spray, on 
every leaf, and in every possible place, for 
this unhappy race, of which probably not a 
pair in many millions get into, a place of 
safety, fulfil the first law of nature, and lay 
the foundation of a new community. 
The termites arborum, those which build 
in trees, frequently establish their nests within 
the roofs and other parts of houses, to which 
they do considerable damage, if not timely 
extirpated. The large species are not only 
much the most destructive, but more diffi- 
cult to be guarded against, since they make 
their approaches chiefly under ground, de- 
scending below the foundations of houses and 
stores at several feet from tiie surface, and 
rising again either in the floors, or entering 
at the bottoms of the posts, of which the sides 
of the buildings are composed, bore quite 
through them, following the course of the 
fibres to the top, or making lateral perfora- 
tions and cavities here and there as they pro- 
ceed. 
While some are employed in gutting the 
posts, others ascend from them, entering a 
rafter or some other part of the roof. If they 
once find the thatch, which seems to be a 
favourite food, they soon bring im wet clay, 
and build their pipes or galleries through the 
roof in various directions, as long as it will- 
support them ; sometimes eating the palm- 
tree leaves and branches of which it is com- 
posed, and, perhaps (for variety seems very 
pleasing to them) the rattan, or other running 
plant, which is used as a cord to tie the 
various parts of the roof together, and that to 
the posts which support it ; thus, with the 
assistance of the rats, who during the rainy 
season are apt to shelter themselves there,, 
and to.burrow through it, they very soon ruin* 
