Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/688

 658 TERMITES exactly alike, and are furnished with four very long, nearly equal wings ; after impregnation the abdomen increases greatly from the im- mense number of eggs which it contains ; as many as 80,000 may be laid by one female in 24 hours, making about 30,000,000 in a year. Most of the community is made up of wingless individuals, resembling the winged insects, but without eyes; these are the workers, which perform all the labors of construction. Others without wings, apparently pup, resemble the workers, but have four tubercular wing cases on the thorax ; these are supposed to be neu- ters or incomplete females, which attend upon the king and queen and take care of the young brood; the extraordinary fecundity of these ants renders necessary a large class of neuters, which possess the affections of maternity with- out the power of reproduction. The fifth class, apparently neuters still further developed, have very large jaws, and are the soldiers and de- fenders of the rest. From the researches of Fritz Muller (" Nature," 1874) it appears that, unlike the social hymenoptera, the neuters of the termites are not sterile females, but modi- fied larva which undergo no further metamor- phosis ; that both sexes are represented among the neuters ; and that there are in many (if not in all) species two forms of sexual individ- uals, winged and wingless males and females ; the former produced in vast numbers, leaving the nest, and most of them perishing ; the lat- ter never leaving the termitary where they were born. The constitution of their societies in its general characteristics does not vary es- sentially from that noticed under ANT. They make edifices of a most remarkable size and complexity, usually on the ground, but some- times among branches of trees and in houses, communicating with the ground by long spiral galleries. When on the ground, the most usual shape is that of a group of irregular cones, fre- quently 12 ft. high, looking like huts of the natives, and so firmly constructed that man and beast can stand on them securely ; they are built of earth softened in the jaws of the work- ers, which dries quickly and becomes very hard. A nest is divided internally into numerous chambers and galleries, in one of which the queen is imprisoned, and waited upon by nu- merous special attendants whose apartments are in close proximity to the royal cell ; the male is said to lie concealed under one side of the enlarged abdomen of the female. The at- tendants carry off the eggs as soon as they are laid into separate chambers, where the young when hatched are tended by the nurses. There are generally two or three roofs within the dome-shaped interior, and the thick walls are perforated by passages leading in various di- rections to the nurseries, magazines of food, ground floor, and subterranean entrances ; the food consists principally of decaying and dried wood, though gums and thickened vegetable juices are stored in their magazines. The king and queen have no regal authority. Destruc- tive as the termites often are, they play a most important part in the economy of nature by removing decaying wood, which otherwise in a short time would seriously interfere with vegetation in the tropics. The largest and best known species is the warrior white ant of Af- rica (T.fatalis, Linn., or T. bellicosus, Smeath.) ; in each nest there are a king and queen, and about 100 workers to one soldier; the workers are about a quarter of an inch long, always busy and very fast runners ; the soldiers, which appear to be the same further developed, are about half an inch long, and the perfect insects from 6 to - of an inch long ; it is supposed Nest of the White Ant (Termes bellicosus). 1. Male. 2. Gravid female. 8, 4, 5. Neuters. that two or three years are requisite for the full development of the species from the cprg. Toward the commencement of the rainy season the perfect insects take flight, but are mostly destroyed by the heavy rains ; if a pair escape, they are taken by some of the workers which are always running over the ground, and are made the king and queen of a new colony. The pregnant female has the abdomen 3 to 5 in. long and two thirds of an inch wide, about 2,000 times as large as the rest of her body, and 20,000 to 30,000 times as large as that of the workers. The bite of the soldiers is very severe and painful, but not dangerous to a healthy person ; they permit themselves to be torn asunder rather than let go their hold. They have many enemies in other ants, birds, and reptiles, which destroy great numbers; the wingless ones are also devoured with avid-