Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1888-12-22
A WONDERFUL INSECT.
Romance of the White Ant, Which Is
Blind aud Yet Accompanies Marveis.


Blind aud Yet Accompanies Marveis.
From the Baltimore Americana
One portion of Professor Drum
mond's recent book. Tropical Africa"
reads like a fairy tale. 1t is the won
derful romance of the white ant. 1t is
small insect. with q bloated, yellow
ish-white body and Somewhat large
thoraX, oblong-shaped, and colored a
disagreeable oily brown. The tcrmite
lives almost exclusively upon wood,
and the moment tree is cut or log
sawn for any economical purpose, this
insect is upon its track One may never
see the insect, possibly, in the flesh,
for 1t lives under ground, but its raw
ages confront one at every turn.
The white ant is blind; it has many
enemies, and can never procure food
until it comes above ground How
does it solve the difficulty? 1t takes
the ground out along with it, l have
seen white ants working on the top of
high tree, and yet they were under
ground. They tco'i up some of the
ground with them TO the tree-top, Just
as the Esluimaux heap up snow. build
ing it into the low tunnel-hut in which
they live; 50 the white ants collect
earth, only in tn S case not from the
surface, but from some depth under
meath the grounl, into tunnelcd ways
Occasionally these run along the
ground, but more often mount in end
less ramiicdtion to the tops of trees,
meandering along each branch and
twig, and here and there debouching
into large covered channels, which oc-
cupy half the girth of the trunk.
Millions of trees in some distress are
thus Enthusiastically plastered over with
tubes, galleries and chambers of Garth.
and many pounds weight of subsoil
mus b. brought up for the mining of
even single tree.
Peering over the growing wall one
soon discovers one, two, or more ter
mites of a somewhat larger build, con-
siderably longer, and with very diff
ferent arrangement of the parts of tho
head, and especially of the mandibles.
These important-looking individuals
saunter about the rampant in the most
leis rely way, but yet with certain
air of business, MS it, perhaps, the one
was the master of works and the other
the architect. They are posted there
as sentries, and there they stand or
promenade about at the mouth of every
tunnel, like Sister Ann, to see if any
body is coming. Sometime somebody
does come in the shape of another ant
the real ant this time, not the de-
fenSeless NeurOptoron, but some valiant
and beltad knight from the warlike
FormicidH. Singly or in tr, ops, this
rapacious little insect fearless in its
chitonous coat of mail, charges down
the tree trunk, its antennp waving de-
tiance to the enemy and its cruel mani
dibles thirsting for termite blood
The worker white ant is q poor. de-
fencelesS creature, and, blind and I'M
armed, would fall an immediate prey
to these well-driil d banditti, who
forage about in every tropical forest
in unnumbered legion But at the
critical moment, like Goliath from the
philistines, the soldier termite adj
vances to the fight. With a few sweeps
of its scythe-like jaws, it clears the
ground, and VIII lie the attacking party
is carrying Off its prey, the builders,
unconscious of the fray, quietly con-
tinue their work. To every hundred
workers in white-ant colony, which
numbers many thousands of individuals,
there are, perhaps, two or three fight
ing men. The division of labor here is
very wonderful, and the fact that be-
sides these specialized forms there are
in every nest two other kinds of the
same insect, the kings and queens,
shows the remarkable height to which
civilization in these communities has
attained.
The great ant mounds are built in
mesh-work of tunnels, galleries, and
chambers, where the social interests of
the community are attended to. The
most spacious of these chambers,
usually far underground, is very prop
erly allocated t. the head of the So
ciety, the queen. The queen termite
is very rare insect and as there are
seldom more than one, CT at most two,
to colony, and as the royal apart
monts are hidden far in the earth, few
persons have ever seen a queen, and
indeed most, ii they did happen to
come across it, from its singular APP
pearance, would refuse to believe that
it had any connection with white ants
Her one duty in life is to lay eggs, and
it must be confessed she discharges her
function with complete success, for in
single day her progeny often amounts
to many thousands.