WHITE ANTS. 
497 
enlarge to such an enormous size, that an old queen 
will have it increased so as to be fifteen hundred or 
two thousand times the bulk of the rest of her body, 
and twenty or thirty thousand times the bulk of 
a labourer, as I have found by carefully weighing 
and computing the different states. The skin be- 
tween the segments of the abdomen extends in 
every direction; and at last the segments are re- 
moved to half an inch distance from each other, 
though at first the length of the whole abdomen is 
not half an inch. They preserve their dark brown 
colour, and the upper part of the abdomen is 
marked with a regular series of brown bars, from 
the thorax to the posterior part of the abdomen ; 
while the intervals between them are covered with 
a thin, delicate, transparent skin, and appear of a 
fine cream colour, a little shaded by the dark colour 
of the intestines, and watery fluid, seen here and 
there beneath. I conjecture the animal is upwards 
of two years old when the abdomen is increased to 
three inches in length : I have sometimes found 
them of near twice that size. The abdomen is now 
i 
of an irregular oblong shape, being contracted by 
the muscles of every segment, and is become one 
vast matrix full of eggs, which make long circum-- 
volutions through an innumerable quantity of very 
minute vessels that circulate round the inside in a 
serpentine manner, which would exercise the in- 
genuity of a skilful anatomist to dissect and de- 
velop. This singular matrix is not more remark- 
able for its amazing extension and size, than for its 
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