The Port Gibson herald, and correspondent. (Port Gibson, Claiborne Co., Miss.) 1848-18??, 1850-02-01

come to be handled. Humboldt, In his
"Personal Narrative" says that "the ter
mites (eomse,a) create obstacles to the pro-
gress Of civilization. in several hot and
temperate parts Of the equinoctial zone,
that are difficult to be surmounted. They
devour paper, pasteboard and parchment
with frightful rapidity, destroying records
and Libraries. Whole provinces Of Span
ish America" he adds, ''do not afford one
written document that dates hundred
years back. What improvement" he well
observes. 'scan the civilization of nations
acquire, if nothing link the present with
the past: if the depositions of human
knowledge must be repeatedly renewed;
if the records Of genius and reason can
not be transmitted TO posterity." In his
"Political Essay" he asserts that, "through-
out all the warmer parts Of equinoctlal
America, where the fernlites and other
destructive insects abound, it is infinitely
rare to find papers which 60 fifty or sixty
years back
The largest, best known, and most cele-
brated species of white ant is the ternles
fGiale Of Linnaus, or beHicosus of Smeath-
man. of which the latter writer has given
a long account in the seventy-6rst volume
Of the "Philosophical Transactions Of the
Royal Society of London" From speci-
mems of this remarkable species, in all its
stages. sent to me from Western Africa.
and from our small native species, my
knowledge of the characteristics of the
various individuals composing commu-
nifty Of these insects, has been chiefly de-
rived. The specimens from Mississippi,
which consist Of laborers and two or three
soldiers, are intermediate in size between
the above named species; but, without the
winged males and females, they cannot be
identified with any described species.
A community of white ants consists OF
countless numbers of individuals, which
carry on all their operations in common,
with the utmost regularity, dividing their
labors among the different ranks or orders,
composing the swarm. These ranks have
been denominatad by old writers, the no
bility, including a king and queen, the
soldiers. and the common laborers. These
names are more fanciful than true, and to
them must be added another order, the
patp9, which were unknown to Smeath-
man, and were first described by Latreille.
The soldiers are to the laborers in the pro-
portion Of one to one hundred, and the
latter are numerous beyond calculation.
Late investigations seem to show that
the laborers are really the young of the
quecn-mother, that they are insects in an
immature state, and, in this respect, are
analogous TO the young or larU@ of those
insects, which, like the white ants, are
subject only to partial transformation,
Most of the specimens transmitted by the
clerk of the probate court. are laborers or
larU9 only. II IS in this form. hut Of small
Ter size, that the insects appear when first
hatched from the egg, aud they come TO
their full size without any other change.
The Mississippi specimens, which are
much shrivelled, measure nearly three
twentieths Of an inch in length. They
have rounded shelly head, pair of bead
| like dntenne, or horns, jointed feelers, and
strong carved jaws, slightly notched, and
fitted for gnawing; but they are destitute
Of eyes, which indeed would be useless to
them in their dark retreats, where they
are guided by their other organs of sense.
Their legs are six IN number, and they
run with considerable agility. They are
not provided with stings, but they bite
sharply. Their bodies are white and soft,
and appear weak and defenceless; but
they make up for their want of strength
by their numbers and their industry. All
the labor of constructing their habtations,
and making their subterranean passages,
covered ways, and galleries in wood, de-
wolves alone on their immature ldrUe OF
laborers. Latreille supposes that they dc
not undergo their transformations till the
second year Of their lives. AT what age
they are able to take part in the labors Of
the swarm is uncertain; probably the state
Of mere helpless infancy is very short In
them, and perhaps, like caterpilars, they
begin to work as soon as they are hatched.
In this respect the drU9 or young of white
ants differ essentially from the young oi
true ants, bees, wasps, and other social in.
sects, which require to be tended and fed
by the grown-up working neuters, till they
undergo a change Of form; and, as DIR
Burmeister and Mr.. Westwood correctly
observes; s'there is no other instance in the
whole animal world, in which the unde
yeloped young, labor for the DID,
The next form in which ants appear is
that of the intermediate or pupe state
The pupe of the Mississippi species are
unknown to me. Those of the ternae'
tafaLe, which have never before been de
: scribed, are larger and proportionally lon
ger than the laborers, being nearly double
the length OF the latter. The body is o
an ivory white color, and very soft consis
tence, the head is small, and there are fou
, short, narrow and fattened rudimentarl
wings on the back, projecting obliquely OIL
] each side of the body. In other respects
, the pupa resembles the lorUa, and being
provided with legs, it is probably as wei
, able to run about and obtain its own food
That the insects grow in this state is evi
dent from their difference in size; bu
whether they perform any labor in thei
habitation is unknown. 1t is to be pre-
sumed, however, that the pupa state last
! only short time, during which the insec
has very little to do, except to take its foo
5 and prepare for its frail transformation.
Il