INSECT SUCKERS AND BITERS. 231 
workers eyes so that they see their way, but Smeath- 
man, who studied them in Africa, saw the workers 
marching in regular streams or columns twelve or 
fifteen abreast, guarded by the soldiers, while sentinels 
were placed on plants along the road. These 
soldiers struck the leaves every now and then with 
their jaws, making a ticking noise, to which the 
workers answered with a hiss and then quickened 
their pace. 
And here we must end our history. There is pro- 
bably nothing more curious in the whole insect world 
than the termite communities ; for these children 
of Life have learnt lessons far above any of their 
near relations, while the necessity of preparing for 
and tending the eggs which the queens lay at such a 
prodigious rate, makes the whole nest a constant 
scene of activity and contrivance. The study of 
their habits and customs is one of the greatest 
possible interest, but here we must content ourselves 
with a mere general glimpse, and with establish 
ing firmly in our minds the fact that the " white 
ants " of India and Africa are quite a different race, 
and belong to a totally different order of insects, 
from their darker namesakes in England. They 
belong to the nerve-winged insects, and together 
with all those included in this chapter they are born 
in the same shape as their parents, only without wings. 
For we shall notice that the aphides and the 
bugs, the grasshoppers and cockroaches, the may- 
flies and dragon -flies, as well as the termites, change 
their coats as they grow too small for them, creeping 
out of their skins many times in their lives. But 
they do not change their bodies, as we shall see in 
