Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/79

 which attach themselves to the long worm-like tongue of this animal, and the workers, on whom the prosperity of the young brood immediately depends, are left for the most part unharmed. I always found, on thrusting my finger into a mixed crowd of Termites, that the soldiers only fastened upon it. Thus the fighting caste do in the end serve to protect the species by sacrificing themselves for its good.

A family of Termites consists of workers as the majority, of soldiers, and of the King and Queen. These are the constant occupants of a completed Termitarium. The royal couple are the father and mother of the colony, and are always kept together closely guarded by a detachment of workers in a large chamber in the very heart of the hive, surrounded by much stronger walls than the other cells. They are wingless and both immensely larger than the workers and soldiers. The Queen, when in her chamber, is always found in a gravid condition, her abdomen enormously distended with eggs, which, as fast as they come forth, are conveyed by a relay of workers in their mouths from the royal chamber to the minor cells dispersed throughout the hive. The other members of a Termes family are the winged individuals: these make their appearance only at a certain time of the year, generally in the beginning of the rainy season. It has puzzled naturalists to make out the relationship between the winged Termites and the wingless King and Queen. It has also generally been thought that the soldiers and workers are the larvæ of the others; an excusable mistake, seeing that they much resemble larvæ. I satisfied myself,