Page:Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living.djvu/160

 NSECTS

Fro. 7 6 . Termite work in a piece of wood. Tunnels following the grain are made by species ofRetieulitermes, the coin- mon underground termites-of the eastern United States

wherever the food supply attracts it, recognizing no ties or responsibilities to others of its species and contending witb its fellows, often in dead]y combat, for whatever advantage it can gain. A few animals are communistic or social in their mode of lire; notab]y so are man and certain insects. Tbe best-known exam- pies of social insects are the ants and some of the bees and wasps. The termites, however, con- stitute anotber group of social insects of no less interest than the ants and bees, but whose hab- its have not been so long observed. More fami]iar]y to some peop]e, termites are known as "white ants." But since they are not ants, nor a]ways white or even pale in color, we should discard this mis- leading and unjustifiable appellation and learn to know the termites by the name under which they are universally known to entomologists. If you split open an old board that has been lying almost anywhere on the ground for some time, or if, wben out in tbe woods, you cut into

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TERMITES