The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-11-11
Termites.

true ant belongs to the order H~y1neziopterd,
which includes the bees, the wasps, the
saw-hies, the gall-tiies, etc, etc. The
termites are social insects, and live in i'm
mense communities, like the bees and true
ants. Like the bees and true ants, too,
they are divided into three classes, viz:
| Males, females and neuters. The neuters
are again separated into two castles, COM
posed respectively of aborted males called
| soldiers and aborted females called work
ers.
The soldiers have large heads and
strong manibles, fitting them for their sole
duty in life, which is to defend the colo
MES and fight to the death in the protec-
ton ofthe workers and the helpless queen
| mother of the community. The workers,
which comprise the bulk of the colony,
Communicating the soldiers by about 100 to
one, have rounded heads and short man
dibles. Upon them devolves the labor of
constructing nests, tunneling galleries,
collecting provisions, nursing the young
and waiting upon the queen. Strangely
| enough, both soldiers and workers are to-
tally blind, and execute the ingenious and
complicated operations involved in their
domestic economy unaided by the organ
| of sight. The largest of the term:tes is
the Ternes bellicdsus, which innabits
| Western and Southern Africa. The work
ers of this species are one-tifth of IN inch
in length; the soldiers are twice as long
and weigh fifteen times as much, and the
males are four-fifths of an inch long and
weigh thirty times as much as the work
ers. The full-grown queen is two inches
inches in length and Will outweigh 10000
| workers.
All the termites are miners, and the
greater number are also architects and
masons. One species. the Iermss ~dborupL
builds its nest in trees, sometimes at the
height of seventy or eighty feet. These
arboreal structures are of huge size, like
s~ugar-casks, and are made of particles Of
gnawed wood and cemented together, and
so strongly attached to a branch that the
severest storm will not shake them from
their foundations.
The Termes atr0r build their nests in the
form of upright cylinders, which are
| from two to three feet high, about five feet
in diameter, and are composed of we'll
tempered black earth or clay. The cylin-
ders are capped with a root whose caves
| iut three or four inches beyond the Circu-
lar walls, givingthe whole the appearance
of gigantic mushrooms. But the most
wonderful architects among the termites
are the Ternlss bellicdsus, whose dOme-like
dwellings rise to the height of from
twelve to twenty feet. Their outward
aspect is that of an irregular cone fiankcd
with turrets, gradually decreasing in
height like the pinnacles Of a cathedral.
The external walls of this edifce are from
fifteen to twenty inches thick, and are
hard as rock or sunburnt brick. Under
the dome of the termitary, as the nest is
called, there is a vacant space occupying
about one-third of the total height. This
! open story or attic serves to maintain a
uniform temperature throughout the
structure. Just below the attic are stu
ated the egg-rOOms and nurseries. These
are little cells divided off by partitions
| made of sawdust, rendered solid by means
of gum. Under the nurseries on the
ground floor is the royal chamber, an OBJ
long apartment, with an arched ceiling
and walls pierced with circular openings.
Round about this cell are distributed the
offices, which are also vaulted rooms,
oDD,r M ricatin with aapb ptlpr nv rprri
dors. Along the walls of the termitary
are ranged the magazines, in which are
stored gums and vegetable juices, solidi-
fed and in powder. There is no visible
entrance to these editices, the termites en-
tering them through long subterranean
galleries. Although built OF earth, and
tunneled with corridors and cells, these
nests are so stout as to bear the weight OF
a man, or ever of a buffalo, and they
form a favOrite watch-tOwer for wild
beasts, which are enabled to overlook the
surrounding country from their SUBMITS.
Should one Of these termitaries be
broken into, an army of soldiers rush
forth and charge against the assailant with
indescribable fury. Being blind, their
attacks are delivered wildly upon the first
object that offers itself. If negroes are
the aggressors they are Don put to flight,
for the bite of the fighting termite is keen
as a knife-cut, the insect hanging or to
the bleeding wound he has made until he
is torn from it limb by limb. During
the combat writes NJ. Figuier, de-
scribing the scene, "the soldiers strike
from time to time on the ground with
their pincers, and produce a little, dry
sound, to which the workers answer by a
sort of whistling. The workers immedi-
ately make their appearance, and with
their pellets of mortar set to work to stop
up the holes and repair the damage.
The soldiers then re-enter, with the eX-
ception of a small number, who remain
to superintend the work of the masOns
they give, at intervals, the usual signal,
and the workers answer by a whistle which
means Here we are! as they redouble
their activity. If the attack recommences
the soldiers are at their posts, defending
the ground inch by inch. During this
time the workers mark the passages, stop
up the galleries, and wall up with care
the royal cell. If you manage to pene-
trate as far as this sanctuary you may
pick up and carry away from the cell
which contains them the precious couple
without the workers in attendance on them
inlerrupting their work, for they are
blind" 1871.
The termites are among the most de-
structive of living creatures. Nothing
but stone and the metals are secure from
their ~depredations. Their diet is vege-
tartan, and consists chiefly of the tibers
of wood. As they are blind they do not
need to work in the light, but, on the con-
trary, avoid it and carefully conduct all
their operations under cover, so that the
injury they are doing is seldom discov-
cred until nearly or quite accomplished.
In the course of a single night they will
consume the entire woodwork of a build
ing. They perforate the floor, the beams,
the furniture and every article and utensil
of wood in the house, leaving all stand
ing apparently intact, but in reality a
mere shell, with the substance wholly eat
en- out. The chairs remain as placed the
night before, but fall in pieces as one sits
upon them; the staircase drops at the first
football upon it, and the timbers that sup
port roof and wall crumble at a blow.
Mr.. Smeathman, who wrote a full ac-
count of the termites of Southern Africa
toward the close of the last century, gives