Homes Without Hands: Being a Description of the Habitations of Animals, Classed According to Their Principle of Construction

In the first place, the reader must understand that the Termite is not an ant at all, but belongs to a totally different order of insect, and is allied to the dragon-flies, the ant-lions, the May-flies, and the beautiful Lace-wing flies.

The Termites are social, and, like other social insects, are divided into several grades, such as workers, males, and females, the two latter of which are winged when they reach maturity. The body is oblong and flat, the antennæ short, and the mandibles flattened and toothed, and in most cases extremely long and formidable. Each colony is founded by a single pair, popularly called the king and queen, and the rest of the population consists of developed males and females, which are intended to perpetuate the species and found fresh colonies, and of undeveloped individuals, or neuters, of both sexes. The neuter males are termed soldiers, and are armed with powerful jaws proceeding from enormous heads, and the neuter females are termed workers, and are very small.

There are now before me some specimens of African Termites, the soldiers of which are five or six times as large as the workers. They are formidable creatures, but they can do little harm beyond inflicting a severe bite, as they are not furnished with stings nor even with poison glands. They can bite through the clothes of a European, and when they swarm upon the bare limbs of the Negro they inflict almost unbearable tortures. The chief duty of the soldier seems to be the defence of the nest; for, whenever the walls are broken down, the soldiers come trooping out to attack the invader, and, being quite unconscious of fear, they will seize on the first strange object that happens to come in their way. There are comparatively few soldiers, their proportion to the workers being only one per cent.

When a pair of developed Termites have settled themselves to form a colony, they share the fate of certain Oriental potentates, and never move out of their royal cell. When the queen is fairly settled, she increases in size so rapidly, that, even if she were set at liberty, she could not crawl an inch. While the head, thorax, and legs retain their original dimensions, the abdomen swells until it is more than two inches long and about three quarters of an inch in width. Thus developed, she produces eggs by the thousand, which are immediately carried off by the workers, who have reserved certain apertures in the royal apartment through which they can easily pass. When the eggs are hatched, the young are carefully watched and tended until they are at last developed into males, females, or neuters, and themselves are able to take part in the manual work.

A full-sized nest of the African Termite is a wonderful structure. Although made merely of clay, the walls are nearly as hard as stone, and quite as hard as the brick of which villa residences are usually built. The form of the nest is essentially conical, a large cone occupying the centre, and smaller cones being grouped round it, like pinnacles round a Gothic spire.

In Andersson’s valuable work, “Lake Ngami,” there are many detached accounts of the African Termite. He states that he has seen nests which were full twenty feet in height, and had a circumference of a hundred feet, and that when the insects were developed and obtained their wings, they issued forth in such hosts that the air seemed as if it were filled with dense and white snowflakes. So strong is the instinct for rushing into the air, that they can scarcely be retained within the nest, and will even pass through fire in order to gain their end.

The nests are always interesting objects, even from the exterior. The walls are so hard that hunters are accustomed to mount upon them for the purpose of looking out for game, and the wild buffalo has a similar habit, the structure being strong enough even to support the weight of so large an animal. The daily labors of the architects can easily be traced, on account of the dampness of the recent clay, so that an approximation can be formed as to the length of time which is occupied in erecting one of the nests. The traveler is always glad to see a large Termite nest, because he is nearly sure to find the surface studded with mushrooms, which are larger and better flavored than those which our fields produce.

The natives have another motive for looking after the Termite nests, because they eat the inmates, considering them to be a peculiar luxury. The same author whom I have already mentioned describes a curious interview that he had with Palani, a Bayeiye chief. Wishing to show the chief the superiority of European cookery, Mr. Andersson spread some apricot jam on bread, and offered it to him. The chief took it, and expressed himself much pleased with it, but asserted that Termites were much superior in flavor. In order to catch the Termites in sufficient numbers, the native makes a hole in the nest, and when the workers are congregated for the purpose of repairing the breach, he sweeps them into a vessel, and repeats the operation until he has obtained as many as he wants.

As is the case with the true ants, the Termites only retain their wings for a limited period, using them for the purpose of escaping from the nest, and snapping them off as soon as they have met with a partner. The manner in which the wings are fixed to the body is the same in both groups of insects, and these singular organs are shed by being bent sharply forward. If a living Termite be caught, and its wings pressed forward with a pin, they will instantly snap off; but if bent backward, a piece of the body will be torn away before the wings can be removed.

A correspondent of the Field newspaper gives a very interesting account of the proceedings of the Termites living in India. After mentioning the peculiar shedding of the wings, he writes as follows:

“The career of the winged white ant, as far as I have had an opportunity of judging, is as follows: Soon after the commencement of the first shower which ushers in the rainy season in India, swarms of winged white ants are to be seen issuing from small holes in the earth, in old mud or sunburnt brick walls, and from places of a similar character, in which the original nests may have been located whence these swarms are thrown off. These legions at once attract the attention of all the insectivorous and omnivorous birds in the neighborhood, and the minahs, crows, and sparrows are on the alert to feast to satiety on the defenseless ants.

“Judging from the appearance of the wings of these ants as they emerge from their earth-home, I should be disposed to think that they do not develop their wings until the dampness of the atmosphere warns them to prepare for action. There is a new, smooth, and glossy appearance about them, not unlike the wings of a young wasp, or the shine of a new hat. The ants vary much in size at this period of their existence; in good damp seasons, and perhaps in favorable localities, they have a well-fed, plump appearance, whereas under unfavorable circumstances they present a slender and measly complexion. They crawl to the mouth of the hole in the first instance, and at once take wing. The males and females take no particular notice of each other until they have made their preliminary flight, which is but short; they soon alight on the ground, or on the dinner-table, as the case may be, making direct for a light if their flight is after dark.

“As soon as they obtain a footing after their descent from their aerial expedition, both males and females commence to run a most headlong and reckless career. Nothing appears to arrest their progress. The female, who is larger and more full in figure than the male, is also slower in her movements. She stops from time to time, and performs slow and singular contortions with the hinder portion of her body. I can’t help thinking that she gives out some peculiar odor at these times—at all events, the males are sensible of the scent of the females, and if they, in their more rapid quartering of the ground, pass over the track of a female, their excitement and activity is redoubled, and they take up the running with singular pertinacity.

“Up to this point both male and female ant retain their wings, and it is as difficult to deprive them of these members as it is to pull the wings from a house-fly. No sooner, however, does the male ant overtake the female, than he makes a dash at the but too-willing flirt, and seizes (gently, I presume) the extreme end of her plump figure with his jaws. This is the signal to the female that she no longer requires her wings, and at once, with a jerk, both male and female throw from them these now useless encumbrances. Away they go, madam towing my lord, who never quits his hold, but clings to the skirts of his lady-love in a most gallant manner. They race over stock and stone, over garden wall, veranda, or dinner-table, as the case may be, until they jointly fall victims to the ever-watchful birds, beasts, or fishes, who are all on the qui vive for the dainty morsel.

“Should they escape all their numerous enemies, and not succeed in being swept from the table by the ever-watchful kitmutgar, the female soon selects for her home, in which to spend the honeymoon of her existence, some spot which seems adapted for the end which she has in view. If she is a prudent, cautious dame, she picks out some soft nodule of earth moistened by the recent rain, and having done so, she communicates to her lord and follower by some means, which to me are inscrutable, that she thinks the lodgings will do.

“The worthy gentleman at once casts off the tow-line, and he and the lady of his affections buckle to without loss of time, and excavate a home for the comfortable reception of the lady. White ants are put to sad shifts at these times. Any dark nook brings them to a halt, and the lee-side of a plate, tray, or the shady side of a candlestick is often selected by the confiding female. In all her arrangements the male appears to acquiesce without demur.

“Vanity and vexation are the natural results of such ill-considered domestic arrangements, and the expiring couple, exhausted with their endeavors to make an earthen nest out of a bamboo tray and a cotton table-cloth, are scattered to the winds by the first servant who may be pleased to screw up energy sufficient to remove the débris of the evening meal, to make way for master’s breakfast next day. Of the subsequent career of the happy couple it is out of my power to speak, never having had an opportunity of carefully watching their movements.”

As to the Termites of Southern America, much information may be obtained from Mr. Bates’s valuable work on the natural history of the Amazons. As many of his remarks simply prove the identity of habits between the Termites of the Old World and those of the New, I shall say nothing about them, but merely give a brief extract of his observations.

As with the species which have already been described, the soldiers are the only individuals that fight. When, therefore, the ant-bear tears down the walls of the nest and begins to lick up the inmates, none but the soldiers are killed, they having come out to fight the enemy, while the workers have all run away and hidden themselves underground. In consequence of this fact, the economy of the nest is but slightly disturbed, and after the ant-bear has gone away, the workers begin to raise their walls afresh.