Chap. XXVII. 
WHITE ANTS. 
539 
its fore-legs a pellet of soft plaster about the size of a pea. When 
it has fixed upon a convenient spot for its dwelling, it forms a cell 
about the same length as its body, plastering the walls, so as to 
be quite thin and smooth inside. When this is finished, all except 
a round hole, it brings seven or eight caterpillars or spiders, each 
of which is rendered insensible, but not killed, by the fluid from 
its sting. These it deposits in the cell, and then one of its own 
larvae, wliich, as it grows, finds food quite fresh. The insects are 
in a state of coma, but the presence of vitality prevents putridity, 
or that drying up, which would otherwise take place in this 
chmate. By the time the young insect is full gTown and its wings 
completely developed, the food is done. It then pierces the wall 
of its cell at the former door, or place last fiUed up by its parent, 
flies off, and begins life for itself. The plasterer is a most useful 
insect, as it acts as a check on the inordinate increase of cater¬ 
pillars and spiders. It may often be seen with a caterpillar or 
even a cricket much larger than itself, but they lie perfectly still 
after the injection of cliloroform, and the plasterer, placing a row 
of legs on each side of the body, uses both legs and wings in 
trailing the victim along. The fluid in each case is, I suppose, 
designed to cause insensibility and likewise act as an antiseptic, 
the death of the victims being without pain. 
Without these black soldier-ants, the country would be overrun 
by the wliite ants; they are so extremely prolific, and notliing can 
exceed the energy with which they work. They perform a most 
important part in the economy of nature, by bmying vegetable 
matter as quicldy beneath the soil, as the ferocious red ant does 
dead animal substances. The white ant keeps generally out of 
sight, and works under galleries constructed by night, to screen 
them from the observation of birds. At some given signal, how¬ 
ever, I never could ascertain what, they rush out by hundreds, 
and the sound of their mandibles cutting grass iuto lengths, may 
be heard like a gentle wind murmm'ing tlirough the leaves of the 
trees. They drag these pieces to the doors of their abodes, and 
after some homes’ toil leave off work, and many of the bits 
of grass may be seen collected around the orifice. They con¬ 
tinue out of sight for perhaps a month, but they are never idle. 
On one occasion, a good bundle of gxass was laid down for my bed, 
on a spot which was quite smooth and destitute of plants. The 
