Apterous Insects: but it might with equal propriety have been inserted with the Neuroptera or Hymenoptera; for the males of most of the species, in a perfect state, have either two or four wings.

THE DEATH-WATCH TERMES*.

In old wood, decayed furniture, museums, and neglected books, these insects are almost always to be found; and both the male and female, for the purpose of attracting each other, have the power of making a ticking noise, not unlike that of a watch. When disturbed they are immediately silent; but if viewed without molestation, they not only beat freely, but even answer any person's beating with his nail. At every stroke their body shakes, or seems affected by a sudden jerk; and these jerks succeed each other so rapidly, that it requires great steadiness to perceive, with the naked eye, that the insects are at all in motion. They are seldom heard before the month of July, and never later than the sixteenth of August. It appears strange, that so small an animal as this should be able to make a noise so loud, as sometimes to equal that of the strongest-beating watch. Dr. Derham seems to have been the first naturalist who examined and described this insect. He had often heard the noise, and, in pursuing it, had found nothing but these insects, which he supposed incapable of producing it. One day, how

a horny four-cleft lip. The feelers are four in number, threadshaped, and equal. The antennæ in some of the species are beaded, and in others tapering.

* DESCRIPTION. This insect is about a tenth of an inch long. At first sight it appears like a louse: its mouth, however, with a glass, is seen to be reddish, and its eyes yellow. The antennæ are sharply pointed. It is sometimes, though very rarely, observed to have wings. Linn.-Procus pulsa

SYNONYMS. Termes pulsatorium. torius. Fabricius,

ever, finding that the noise proceeded from a piece of paper, in his study window, loosely folded, and lying in a good light, he viewed it through, and with a microscope observed, to his astonishment, a Death-watch Termes, in the very act of beating. In some years these insects are more numerous than in others, and their ticking is of course more frequently heard. Dr. Derham says, that during the month of July, in one particular summer, they scarcely ever ceased, either in the day or night.

The females lay their eggs in dry and dusty places, where they are not likely to be disturbed. These are exceedingly small, and, in appearance, resemble the nits or eggs of lice. They are generally hatched about the beginning of March. After leaving the eggs, the animals are so small, as scarcely to be discerned, without the assistance of a glass. They continue in the larva state about two months. They subsist on dead flies and other insects; and, from their numbers and voracity, often commit much damage in cabinets of natural history. They also live on other substances, and may frequently be observed hunting, with great care and attention, for nutritious particles, among the dust in which they are found; turning it over with their heads, and searching among it somewhat in the manner of swine. Many of them live through the winter; but, during that time, in order to avoid the inconveniences of frost, they bury themselves deep in dust.

The Death-watch Termes seem to have very little alliance to the following species.

THE WHITE ANTS*.

The animals of this extraordinary community are found in the East Indies, and in many parts of Africa

* SYNONYMS. Termes fatale. Linn.-La Thermès fatale. Tigny.

and South America, where their depredations are greatly dreaded by the inhabitants. Mr. Smeathman, whose account of them occupies more than fifty pages in the seventy-first volume of the Philosophical Transactions, says, that they are naturally divided into three orders: 1. The working insects, which he distinguishes by the name of labourers; 2. The fighters, or soldiers, which perform no other labour than such as is necessary in defence of the nests; and 3. The winged or perfect insects, which are male and female, and capable of multiplying the species. The latter he denominates the nobility or gentry; because they neither labour nor fight.

In their nest or hill, for they build this on the surface of the ground, the labourers are always the most numerous, there being at least a hundred labourers to one of the fighting insects, or soldiers. In this state they are about a quarter of an inch in length.

The second order, or soldiers, differ in figure from the labourers. These appear to be such insects as have undergone one change toward their perfect state. They are now nearly half an inch in length, and are equal in size to about fifteen of the labourers. The shape of the head is likewise greatly changed. In the former state, the mouth was evidently formed for gnawing, or for holding bodies; but, in this state, the jaws being shaped like two sharp awls, a little jagged, are destined solely for piercing or wounding. For these purposes they are well calculated, being as hard as a crab's claw, and placed in a strong horny head, which is larger than all the rest of the body.

The insect of the third order, or in its perfect state, is still more remarkable. The head, the thorax, and the abdomen, differ almost in the same parts as in the labourers and soldiers. The animals are, also, now furnished with four large brownish transparent wings, by which they are enabled, at the proper season, to emigrate, and to establish new settlements. They are likewise greatly altered in their size as well as figure, and have acquired the powers of propagating the spe

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cies. Their bodies now measure nearly three quarters of an inch in length, their wings, from tip to tip, more than two inches and a half, and their bulk is equal to that of thirty labourers, or two soldiers. Instead of active, industrious, and rapacious little animals, they now become innocent, helpless, and dastardly. Their numbers are great, but their enemies are still more numerous: they are devoured by birds, by every species of ants, by carnivorous reptiles, and even by the inhabitants of many parts of Africa. After such devastation, it seems surprising that even a single pair should escape. "Some, however," says Mr. Smeathman, are so fortunate; and, being found by some of the labouring insects, that are continually running about the surface of the ground under their covered galleries,' are elected Kings and Queens of new states: all those which are not so elected and preserved, perish. The manner in which these labourers protect the happy pair from their innumerable enemies, not only on the day of the massacre of almost all their race, but for a long time after, will, I hope, (continues this writer,) justify me in the use of the term election. The little industrious creatures immediately enclose them in a small chamber of clay suitable to their size, into which at first they leave but one entrance, large enough for themselves and the soldiers to go in and out at, but much too little for either of the royal pair to use; and, when necessity obliges them to make more entrances, such entrances are never larger; so that the voluntary subjects charge themselves with the task of providing for the offspring of their sovereigns, as well as of working and fighting for them, until they have raised a progeny capable of at least dividing the task with them.'

About this time a most extraordinary change takes place in the queen. The abdomen begins to extend and enlarge to such an enormous size, that an old queen will sometimes have it so much increased, as to be nearly two thousand times the bulk of the rest of her body. It is now of an irregular, oblong shape, and

becomes one vast matrix full of eggs. When these are perfectly formed, they begin to be protruded, and they come forth so quickly, that about sixty in a minute, or upward of eighty thousand in twenty-four hours, are deposited.

The eggs are immediately taken away by the attendants, and carried to the nurseries. Here they are hatched. The young-ones, when they issue forth, are attended and provided with every thing necessary, until they are able to obtain food for themselves, and to take their share in the labours of the community.

The nests, or rather hills, of these Ants, (for they are often elevated ten or twelve feet above the surface of the ground,) are nearly of a conical shape; and sometimes so numerous, as at a little distance to appear like villages of the negroes. Jobson, in his History of Gambia, says, that some of them are twenty feet high, and that he and his companions have often hidden themselves behind them, for the purpose of shooting deer and other wild animals. Each hill is composed of an exterior and an interior part. The exterior cover is a large clay shell, shaped like a dome, of strength and magnitude sufficient to enclose and protect the interior building from the injuries of the weather, and to defend its numerous inhabitants from the attacks of natural or accidental enemies.

The royal chamber is always situated as near the centre of the building as possible, is generally on a level with the surface of the ground, and is of an obtuse oval shape within. In the infant state of the colony, it is not more than an inch in length; but in time it becomes enlarged to the length of six or eight inches.

-The entrances into the royal chamber, not admitting any animal larger than the labourers or soldiers, it follows that the king and queen can never possibly get out. This chamber is surrounded by many others, of different sizes, figures, and dimensions; all of them arched either in a circular or an elliptical form. These