The interior of a turret is pretty equally divided into innumerable
cells, irregular in shape, but usually more or less angular, generally
quadrangular or pentagonal, though the angles are not well defined.
Each shell has at least two entrances; but there are no galleries,
arches, nor wooden nurseries, as in the nests of the warrior (_T.
bellicosus_). The two species which build turret nests are very
different in size, and the dimensions of the nests differ in proportion.
[Illustration: Turret Nests of White Ants. One nest is represented cut
through, with the upper part lying on the ground.]
The White Ants of Trees.
Latreille's species of white ant (_Termes lucifugus_, Rossi), formerly
mentioned as found in the south of Europe, appear to have more the
habits of the jet-ant, described page 301, than their congeners of the
tropics. They live in the interior of the trunks of trees, the wood
of which they eat, and form their habitations of the galleries which
they thus excavate. M. Latreille says they appear to be furnished with
an acid for the purpose of softening the wood, the odour of which
is exceedingly pungent. They prefer the part of the wood nearest to
the bark, which they are careful not to injure, as it affords them
protection. All the walls of their galleries are moistened with small
globules of a gelatinous substance, similar to gum Arabic. They are
chiefly to be found in the trunks of oak and pine trees, and are very
numerous.[DP]
Another of the species (_Termes arborum_), described by Smeathman,
builds a nest on the exterior of trees, altogether different from any
of the preceding. These are of a spherical or oval shape, occupying
the arm or branch of a tree sometimes from seventy to eighty feet
from the ground, and as large, in a few instances, as a sugar-cask.
The composition used for a building material is apparently similar
to that used by the warriors for constructing their nurseries, being
the gnawings of wood in very small particles, kneaded into a paste
with some species of cement or glue, procured, as Smeathman supposes,
partly from gummiferous trees, and partly from themselves; but it is
more probable, we think, that it is wholly secreted, like the wax of
bees, by the insects themselves. With this cement, whatever may be its
composition, they construct their cells, in which there is nothing
very wonderful except their great numbers. They are very firmly built,
and so strongly attached to the trees, that they will resist the most
violent tornado. It is impossible, indeed, to detach them, except by
cutting them in pieces, or sawing off the branch, which is frequently
done to procure the insects for young turkeys. (See engraving, p. 324,
for a figure of this nest.)
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