INSECT SUCKERS AND BITERS. 229 
as she lays them, and store them in the nursery- 
chambers around ; but the holes through which they 
pass out of the queen's cell (o y Fig. 79) are far too 
small for either of the royal pair to escape. 
The history of this curious community has been 
as follows : About two years ago, before the heavy 
autumn rains began, this king and queen, with thou- 
sands of others, were born from the eggs of another 
huge queen, and when they had cast their skin, 
they came out each with four gauzy wings, and flew 
into the country, or often into the houses if their 
nest was in a town. But their bodies were heavy 
and their wings weak, and so they soon fell to the 
ground, where nearly all their companions were eaten 
by birds and ants and other creatures. They, how- 
ever, chanced to escape, and losing their wings were 
found by a party of working termites. At once these 
active wingless workers carried the royal pair into 
their tunnel, and built a clay chamber round them, 
with only small openings in it (Fig. 79), not large 
enough for them to get out. There they fed them 
carefully, and by and by the abdomen of the queen 
began to swell, and from that time her whole mission 
was to lay eggs. As her size increased, the workers 
enlarged her chamber, and meanwhile were toiling 
busily making nurseries for the eggs, and storehouses 
for the shavings of wood and masses of vegetable 
gum, which they collected by burrowing in every 
direction through living trees, or beams, or wood- 
work of any kind. 
You may imagine how many nurseries must be 
built, besides new rooms for grown-up workers, if 
80,000 eggs are laid every day ; and besides these 
16 
