494 WHITE ANTS. 
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 
on 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 have 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 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 
morning all over the surface of the earth, but par- 
ticularly on the waters, is 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 another, as if solicitous only to avoid its 
