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Updated: June 7, 2025
Garbett asks a question, "Why are not convenience and stability enough to constitute a fine building?" which I should have answered shortly by asking another, "Why we have been made men, and not bees nor termites:" but Mr. Garbett has given a very pretty, though partial, answer to it himself, in his 4th to 9th pages, an answer which I heartily beg the reader to consider.
Ringing them round, the main band of the termites moved closer. They moved slowly, in no hurry, apparently only too sure the enemy could not possibly get away from them. And the two worker termites killed were mere incidents compared to the avalanche of mandible and horn that would be on them in about thirty seconds. However, the two dead termites gave Jim a sudden inspiration.
It is useless to say that Cousin Benedict did honor to the repast, not that he paid any attention either to the quality or to the quantity of the food that he devoured, but because he had found an opportunity to deliver a lecture in entomology on the termites. Ah! if he had been able to find a termite, a single one, in the deserted ant hill! But nothing.
Afterwards it digs right down to the royal chamber, licks up the bloated queen, and goes its way. But there is another worker in the same mine which does not go to work this way. The ant-eater found fat termites so satisfying that it left all other things and devoted its life to the exploiting of anthills, and now it has no rival at that business, but it is fit for nothing else.
Tenthredinidae, proportions of the sexes in; fighting habits of male; difference of the sexes in. Tephrodornis, young of. Terai, in India. Termites, habits of. Terns, white; and black. Terns, seasonal change of plumage in. Terror, common action of, upon the lower animals and man. Testudo elegans. Testudo nigra. Tetrao cupido, battles of; sexual difference in the vocal organs of.
In answer to some voiceless command, one of the termites with the conical heads had approached behind them and wound a leg around each. Sweat stood out on Denny's forehead at the repellent touch of that living bond. He turned and twisted wildly. Jim was struggling madly in the grip of the other foreleg.
I am not prepared to say that the other insectivorous birds would not gladly make a meal of the termites, but, seeing that in Ceylon their numbers are chiefly kept in check by the crepuscular birds, it is observable, at least as a coincidence, that the dispersion of the swarm generally takes place at twilight.
As these lofty mounds of earth have all been carried up from beneath the surface, a cave of corresponding dimensions is necessarily scooped out below, and here, under the multitude of miniature cupolas and pinnacles which canopy it above, the termites hollow out the royal chamber for their queen, with spacious nurseries surrounding it on all sides; and all are connected by arched galleries, long passages, and doorways of the most intricate and elaborate construction.
The true ant, when emerging from the egg, is a footless grub, and remains in the pupa, or quiescent stage, inclosed in a membrane, till its limbs are developed. The termites at once possess the form they are to bear through life, except that the sexual individuals, during the latter stages of their growth, gradually acquire eyes and wings.
While the vast citadels of the white ant formed on the ground are attacked by the great ant-eater, the too great increase of the arborial termites is kept under by three smaller species, formed to live among the branches of the trees. The tamandua is seen climbing the loftiest monarchs of the forest in search of its insect prey. It is about the size of a cat.
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