78 LETTERS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 
less state they become the prey of innumerable 
enemies ; and scarcely one pair in many millions 
escape to found a new colony. The workers, 
who ?.re continually prowling about in their 
covered ways, sometimes meet with a pair, and 
pay them homage, electing them to be the king 
and queen of a new colony. The workers di- 
rectly begin to inclose their new rulers in a 
chamber of clay, suited to their size, but which 
has a door too small to let them pass through, 
so that they are kept in complete confinement. 
When the female begins to lay eggs, the larva? 
or workers carry them away to the nurseries, in 
which when hatched they are provided with food, 
and receive every necessary attention. 
The buildings of the Termes fatalis, if con- 
sidered as in proportion to their size, make the 
Egyptian pyramids and edifices dwindle into 
nothing in comparison. The highest pyramid 
is not more than 600 feet high, which is not 
more than 120 times the height of the builders, 
supposing it on an average to be five feet. Whereas 
the nests of the termites being twelve feet high or 
more, and themselves only a quarter of an inch 
long, their building is more than 570 times their 
own height, which if they were of human stature 
would be half a mile. These nests are formed en- 
