WHITE ANTS. 
493 
four fine, large, brownish, transparent wings, with 
which it is at the time of emigration to wing its 
way in search of a new settlement. In short, it 
differs so much from its form and appearance in 
the other two states, that it has never been sup- 
posed to be the same animal, but by those who 
have seen it in the same nest ; and some of these 
have disturbed the evidence of their senses. It was 
so long before I met with them in the nests myself, 
that I doubted the information which was given me 
by the natives, that they belonged to the same fa- 
mily. Indeed we may open twenty nests without 
finding one winged one ; for those are to be found 
only just before the commencement of the rainy 
season, when they undergo the last change, which 
is preparatoiy to their colonization. Add to this, 
they sometimes abandon an outward part of their 
building, the community being diminished by some 
accident to me unknown. Sometimes, too, different 
species of the real ant ( formica ) possess themselves 
by force of a lodgment, and so are frequently dis- 
lodged from the same nest, and taken for the same 
kind of insects. This I know is often the case 
with the nests of the smaller species, which are fre- 
quently totally abandoned by the termites, and 
completely inhabited by different species of ants, 
cockroaches, scolopendrae, scorpions, and other ver- 
min, fond of obscure retreats, that occupy different 
parts of their roomy buildings. 
“ In their winged state they have also much al- 
tered their size as well as form. Their bodies now r 
