The termite, or white ant, is a terrible destroyer of wood in nearly all tropical countries. There are many species of termite, and all are fearfully destructive, being indeed the greatest pest of the country wherein they reside. Nothing, unless cased in metal, can resist their jaws; and they have been known to destroy the whole woodwork of a house in a single season. They always work in darkness, and, at all expenditure of labour, keep themselves under cover, so that their destructive labours are often completed before the least intimation has been given. For example, the termites will bore through the boards of a floor, drive their tunnels up the legs of the tables or chairs, and consume everything but a mere shell no thicker than paper, and yet leave everything apparently in a perfect condition. Many a person has only learned the real state of his furniture by finding a chair crumble into dust as he sat upon it, or a whole staircase fall to pieces as soon as a foot was set upon it. In some cases the termite lines its galleries with clay, which soon becomes as hard as stone, and thereby produces very remarkable architectural changes. For example, it has been found that a row of wooden columns in front of a house have been converted into a substance as hard as stone by these insects. In pulling down the old cathedral _at Jamaica_, some of the timbers of the roof, which were of hard wood, were eaten away, and a cartload of nests formed by the ants was removed, after being cut away by great labour with hatchets. The first indication of a house being attacked by ants in the tropics is, perhaps, the yielding of a floor board in the middle of a room, or the top hinge of a door suddenly leaving the frame to which it had been firmly screwed a short time before. That the ants provide for winter--as not only Dr. Bancroft and many others, even King Solomon, reports--is found to be an error. Where there is an ordinary winter, the ants lie dormant, during which torpid state they do not want food. The greater number of species belong to the tropical regions, where they are useful in destroying the fallen trees that are so plentiful in those latitudes, and which, unless speedily removed, might be injurious to the young saplings by which they are replaced. Two species, however, are known in Europe, namely, _Termes lucifugus_ and _Termes rucifollis_, and have fully carried out their destructive character, the former species devouring oaks and firs, and the latter preferring olives and similar trees. _At La Rochelle_ these insects have multiplied so greatly as to demand the public attention.