>j.> 44 Mr. ^meathman’s Account of 
and, according to the mode we have adopted from time imme- 
morial in fpeaking of Ants and Bees, the queen. 
Thefe communities confift of one male and one female (who 
are generally the common parents of the whole, or greater part, 
of the reft), and of three orders of infedts, apparently of very 
different fpecies, but really the fame, which together compofe 
great commonwealths, or rather monarchies, if I may be al- 
lowed the term. 
The great einn^us, having feen or heard of but two of 
thefe orders, has clafied the genus erroneoufly ; for he has placed 
it among the Apt era. , or infedts without wings ; whereas the 
-chief order, that is to fay, the infedt in its perfedt ft ate, 
having four wings without any fling, it belongs to the 
Neuropier a in which clafs it will conftitute a new genus of 
many fpecies 
The different fpecies of this genus refemble 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 build- 
ing their habitations or nefts, and in the choice of the mate- 
rials of which they compofe them. 
There are fome fpecies which build upon the furface of the 
ground, or part above and part beneath, and one or two fpecies, 
perhaps more, that build on the Items or branches of trees* 
fbmetimes aloft at a vaft height. 
( 3 ) 1 have no doubt, from the account and figures given of the European 
Termes Piilfatorius, or Death Watch, by the illuflrious baron degeer, in his 
feventh volume of Memoir es pour pervlr a'V Hijloire des Infeftes , that in their 
perfedt ftate they have wings, and fwarm or emigrate, and live in a manner analo- 
gous to thofe of hot climates-; for they feem to have quite the external form of 
the exotic Termes, that is to fay, of the firft and third order, de "GEER, Me- 
• moires, tom. VII. p, 45. pi. IV. fig. 1, 2, 3, & 4, 
Of 
