own as the _Hymenoptera_, a group represented by other insects of
"social" habits, such as bees, wasps, and hornets. The termites, or
white ants of the tropics, are the only "ants" foreign to this order
of insects, the white ants being near relations of the dragonflies,
may-flies, etc. The family history of the latter, as told by Mr.
Bates, may serve to introduce us agreeably to ant society at large.
The nests of the termites may attain a height of five feet, and
present the appearance of conical hillocks, formed of earth particles
"worked," says Mr. Bates, "with a material as hard as stone." In the
neighborhood of the nests, narrow covered galleries or underground
ways are everywhere to be seen, these latter being the passages along
which the materials used for building the nests are conveyed. The
termites are small soft-bodied animals of a pale color, but resemble
the common or true ants in that they live in colonies, composed, like
those of bees, of three chief grades of individuals. These grades are
known as males, females, and blind "neuters," the latter forming at
once the largest bulk of the population, and including in their
numbers the true "working classes" of this curious community. In the
common ants, the "neuters" are regarded as being Undeveloped female
insects. These neuters exhibit in the termites a further division into
ordinary "workers" (Figs. 1, 4), which perform the multifarious duties
connected with the ordinary life of the colony, and "soldiers" (3),
which perfectly exemplify the laws of military organization in higher
life, in that they have no part in the common labor, but devote
themselves entirely to the defence of the colony and to the

"Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war."

The workers appear to perform a never-ending round of duties. They
build the nests, make the roads, attend to the wants of the young,
train up the latter in the ways of ant existence, wait on the
sovereigns of the nest, and like diplomatic courtiers, duly arrange
for the royal marriages of the future. As Mr. Bates remarks, "The
wonderful part in the history of the termites is, that not only is
there a rigid division of labor, but nature has given to each class a
structure of body adapting it to the kind of labor it has to perform.
The males and females form a class apart; they do no kind of work, but
in the course of growth acquire wings to enable them to issue forth
and disseminate their kind. The workers