The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1891-06-05
THE WHITE ANTS OF AFRICA.
They Build Great Structures of Clay In
the Trees and on the Ground.

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 vet it was under
ground. They took up some of the
ground with them to the tree-top; just
as the Esquimaux heap snow up, build
ing it into the low tunnel huts in
which they live, SO the white ants COL
lect earth, only in this case not from
the surface, but from some depth un-
derneath the ground, and plaster 1t
into tunneled ways. Occasionally
these run along the ground, but more
often mount in endless ramification to
the tops of the trees, meandering along
every branch and twig, and here and
there debouching into large covered
chambers which occupy half the girth
of the trunk. Millions of trees in some
districts are thus fantastically plastered
over with tubes, galleries, and cham
bers of earth, and many pounds weight
of subsoil must be brought up for the
mining of even a 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 especially of the
mandibles. These impOrtant-looEing
individuals saunter about the rampant
in the most leisurely way, but yet with
a certain air of business, as if perhaps
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
anybody is coming. Sometimes some
body does come in the shape of another
ant-the real ant this time, not the de-
fenseless neurOpterOn, but some val
liant and belted knight from the war
like formicid@. Single or in troops
this rapacious little insect. fearless in
its chitonous coat of mail, charges
down the tree-trunk, it's antennR wav-
inc defiance to the enemy and its cruel
mandibles thirsting for termite blood.
The worker white ant is a poor, de-
fenseless creature, and, blind and I'M
armed, would fall an immediate prey
to these well-drlled banditti, who for
age about in every tropical forest in
unnumbered legion. But at the crit
icaI moment, like Goliath from the
Philistines. the soldier termite advan-
ces to the fight. With a few sweeps of
its scythe-like jaws it clears the ground,
I and while the attacking party is carry
ING off its dead the builders, uncon-
scious of the fray, quietly continue
their work. To every 100 workers in
a white-ant colony, which numbers
many thousands of individuals, there
are perhaps two of these fighting men.
The division of labor here is very Won
dcrful, and the fact that besides these
two specialized forms there are in every
nest two other kinds of the same in
sect, the kings and queens, shows the
remarkable height to which civilization
in these communities has attained.
These mounds are built into a mesh
work of tunnels, galleries, and cham
bers where the social interests of the
community are attended to. The most
spacious of these chambers, usually far
underground, is very properly alloca-
ted 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 a
colony, and as the royal apartments
are hidden far in the earth, few per-
sons have ever seen a queen, and in
deed most, if they did happen to come
across it, from its very singular appear.
ance, would refuse to believe that il
had any connection with white ants.
Her one duty is to lay eggs, and il
must be confessed she discharges he1
function with complete success, for in
a single day her progeny often amounts
to many thousands.-PdHM MaU Gazette