Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1889-05-04
A WONDERFUL INSECT.
Romance of the White ANT Which, Though
Blind, Accomplishes Wonders.

Romance of the White ant Which, Though
Blind, Accomplishes Wonders.
One portion of Prof. Drumm0nds re-
cent book, Tropical Africa" reads
like fairy tale. 1t is the wonderful
romance of the white aunt. 1t is q
small insect, with bloated, yellowish-
white body and somewhat large thor
AK, oblong-shaped, and colored dis
agreeable oily brown. The termite
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 it lives under ground; but its
ravages 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. / have
seen white ants working on the top of q
high tree, and yet they were under
ground. They took up some of the
ground with them to the tree-top, Just
as the Esquimaux heap up snow, build
ing it into the low tunnel huts in which
they live; so the white ants collect
earth, only in this case not from the
surface, but from some depth under
meath the ground into tunneled ways.
Occasionally these run along the
ground, but more often mount in end
less ramification 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 districts are
thus Enthusiastically plastered over with
tubes, galleries and chambers of earth,
and many pounds weight of subsoil
must be brought up for the mining of
even single tree.
Peering over the growing wall one
soon discovers one, two or more ter
mites OF n somewhat larger build, con-
siderably longer and with very diff
ferent arrangement of the part of the
head, and especially Of the mandibles.
These mportant-looking individuals
saunter about the rampant in the
most leisurely way, but yet with GER
tain air of business, as if, per-
haps, the one was the master of
works and other the architect.
They are posted there as sentries,
and there they stand or promenade
along at the mouth OF every tunnel,
like Sister Ann, to see if any body is
coming. Sometimes somebody does
come in the shape of another ant-the
real ant this time, not the defenseless
| Neuropteron, but some valiant and
belted knight from the warlike Formi-
cida. Singly or in troops, this rapa-
cious little insect, fearless in its Chiffon
GUS coat of mall charges down the tree
trunk, its antenna waving defiance to
the enemy and its cruel mandibles
thifsting for termite blood.
The worker white ant is poor, de-
fenseless creature, and, blind and I'M
armed, would fall an immediate prey
to these well-drilled banditti, who for
age about in every tropical forest in
unnumbered legion. But at the critic
al moment, like Goliath from the Phil
istines, the soldier termite advances to
the fight With few sweeps of his
ecythe-like jaws it clears the ground,
and while the attacking party is carry
ing off its dead the builders, uncon-
scious of the fray, quietly continue
their work. To every hundred work.
ers in o white-ant colony, which num-
bers many thousands of individuals,
there are, perhaps, two of these fight
ing men. The division OF labor here
is very wonderful, and the fact that
besides these two specialized forms
there are in every nest two other kinds
OF the same insect, the kings and
queens, show the remarkable height to
which civilization in these commune
ties has attained.
The great ant mounds are built in q
mesh work OF tunaels. galleries and
chambers, where she social interests
Of the community are attended to. The
most spacious of these chambers, usu-
ally far underground, is very properly
allocated to the head OF the society
the queen. The queen termite is a
very rare insect, and as there are
seldom more than one, or at most two,
to colony, and as the royal apart.
ments are hidden far In the earth, few
persons have ever seen a queen. and
indeed most II they did happen ia
come across II, from its singular ap.
pesrance, would refuse to believe that
it had any connection with white ants.
Her one duty in life is to lay eggs. and
1t must be confessed she discharges
her function with complete success, for
in single day her progeny often
amounts to many thousands. -Bolti.
| aoaore ln.eS;nnn