92 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
can overpower. I have seen a ferocious centipede fighting 
for its life among them with little hope of escape, and 
I have often seen them dragging home the carcases of 
large earthworms. I have also welcomed their raids upon 
my book boxes, where they massacred the crickets and 
cockroaches in a way that was refreshing. But it was 
not till last year that I discovered what I have proved 
abundantly since, that their very staff of life is the white 
ant. The community I have mentioned lived in the 
foundation of my bungalow. They generally do live in 
the foundations of bungalows, and a naturalist who will 
buy a bungalow for the sake of digging them out is a 
great desideratum, for the queen of the Lobopeltas has 
never been found and their inner life is a mystery. Their 
outer life is no mystery, but I never had such an opportu- 
nity of observing it as I had at the time to which I allude. 
Every evening about sunset they would issue from their 
main gate in column, two or three abreast, as their manner 
is when on the march. The column might be twenty or 
thirty yards in length. Scouts went ahead and scoured 
the tennis ground, where the turf was withering as the 
hot season advanced, and white ants came up nightly to 
eat it. Presently some of the scouts found one of those 
