the Termites of Africa and other hot Climates* i j i 
inch diftance from each other, though at firfh the length , of the 
whole abdomen is not half an inch. They preferve .their dark 
brown colour, and the upper part of the abdomen is marked 
with a regular feries of brown bars from the thorax to the 
pofterior part of the abdomen, while the intervals between 
them are covered with a thin, delicate, tranfparent !k ; in, and 
appear of a fine cream colour, a little (haded by the dark 
colour of the dnteftines and watery fluid feen heVe and there 
beneath. I conjecture the. animal is upward of two years 
old when the abdomen is increafed to three Inches in lehpth ; 
' G 
I have fometimes found them of near twice that fize. The 
abdomen is now of an irregular oblong fhape, being con- 
tracted by the mufcles of every fegment, and is become one 
vaft matrix full of eggs, which make long circumvolutions 
through an innumerable q uantitv of very minute veffeis that 
circulate round the* infide in a ferpentine manner, which would 
exercife the ingenuity of a fkilful anatomifl: todifledt and develope. 
This fingular matrix is not more remarkable: for its amazing 
extenflon and -fize than for its periftaltic motion, which refenp- 
bles the undulating of waves, and continues mcefTantlyvwithout 
any apparent effort of the animal ; fo that one part or other 
alternately is riling and finking in perpetual fucceffion, and the 
matrix feems ntvef at’teft d 2 ?), but is always protruding eggs r tb 
the amount [as I have frequently counted in old queers) of 
iixty in a minute or eighty thoufand and upward in one 
day of twenty- four hours/??). . . Thefe 
iii*,.,. j - y * > v/ 2 : ud. ."fifioic.” . ci e* fans* in A tt.f i» 
(7,7) << w e ma y obfcrve in ^ queen, diftended with egg, a partition along the 
back, and a continued motion from one extreme to the other, much like 
y that We find in filk-worms.” Account of Englifh Ants by gould, p. 22. 
~( 28 ) I cannot ppfijtively afCert, that the old queens yield eggs fo plentifully at all 
Z 3 . .. 
