Natural history of insects : comprising their architecture, transformations, senses, food, habits--collection, preservation and arrangement . d from its root for use, and would decay in , healthy trees do not require to be de-stroyed, and, accordingly, these consumers have notaste for them.* M. Adanson describes the termites of Senegal asconstructing coveit ways along the surface of woodwhich they intend to attack; but though we have no * Smeathman. WHITE ANTS. 291 reason to distrust so excellent a naturalist, in de-scribing what he saw, it is certain that they morecommonly eat th
Natural history of insects : comprising their architecture, transformations, senses, food, habits--collection, preservation and arrangement . d from its root for use, and would decay in , healthy trees do not require to be de-stroyed, and, accordingly, these consumers have notaste for them.* M. Adanson describes the termites of Senegal asconstructing coveit ways along the surface of woodwhich they intend to attack; but though we have no * Smeathman. WHITE ANTS. 291 reason to distrust so excellent a naturalist, in de-scribing what he saw, it is certain that they morecommonly eat their way into the interior of the wood,and afterwards form the galleries, when they findthat they have destroyed the wood till it will nolonger afford them protection. But it is time that we should come to their prin-cipal building, which may, with some propriety, becalled a city; and, according to the method we havefollowed in other instances, we shall trace their la-bours from the commencement. We shall beginwith the operations of the species which may be ap-propriately termed the Warrior (Termes falalisyLinn.; T. BeUlcosus^ Smeath.).. Termcs bellicosus in the -wiii^ed state. We must premise, that though they have beentermed white ants, they do not belong to the sameorder of insects with our ants; yet they have aslight resemblance to ants in their form, but morein their economy. Smeathman, to whom we oweour chief knowledge of the genus, describes them asconsisting of kings, queens, soldiers, and workers,and is of opinion, that the workers are larvae, thesoldiers nymphae, and the kings and queens the per-fect insects. In this opinion, he coincides withSparrmann* and others; but Latreille is inclined * Quoted by de Goer, vol. vii. 292 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. to think, from what he observed in a Europeanspecies, {Turmes hicifup:us,) found near Bordeaux,that the soldiers form a distinct race, Kke the neutreworkers among bees and ants; while the workingtermites are larvce,* which are
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