INSECT SUCKERS AND BITERS. 227 
queen of the nation, we see that they must have 
learned these habits quite independently of the true 
ants, with which they have nothing to do. 
A strange and wonderful thing a termite com- 
munity is. Perhaps in India you find one day that 
the sill of your window or the post of your door 
is rotten, and then when you begin to cut it you 
find it completely hollowed out into little cham- 
bers, the wood being eaten away. At first these 
chambers are empty, but as you go on, you find 
small soft white insects with six feet running hither 
and thither. These insects are quite blind and 
wingless, and always work in the dark. Even if 
they come out on the surface of the wall or the 
ground, they cement wood-dust together, or carry up 
clay to make a tunnel, under cover of which they 
travel up and down. In a single night a tube may 
appear all up your wall, which is a termite tunnel, 
built to enable the insects to reach some fresh store 
of woodwork. If you watch you may see the tunnel 
grow at its open end, as one little white grub after 
another comes to the opening and laying on its little 
bit of mudwork, goes back to make room for the 
next. Mingled with these workers are much larger 
insects, also blind and wingless, with huge heads and 
jaws shaped like jagged stilettoes. These are the 
soldiers ; they do not work but defend the labourers, 
hanging on to any enemy with their sharp pincers, 
and allowing themselves to be torn to pieces rather 
than give way. 
And now as you penetrate farther and farther 
through the woodwork and probably down into the 
ground belcw, the small chambers begin to be filled 
11 
