We have ourselves seen, at Rochelle, the formidable beginnings of the ravages they executed in the timber-work of a quarter of the town where they were introduced by foreign ships. Whole buildings are found eaten up, though apparently sound,--all the wood hollowed and tunnelled, even to the banisters of the staircase: do not rest upon them, or they will yield and give way under your hand. These terrible nibblers seem willing, however, to confine themselves to one district of the town, and not to invade the remainder. Otherwise, this historical city, important still through its marine and its commerce, would be reduced to the condition of Herculaneum and Pompeii. [Illustration] [Illustration: II.--INSECTS AT WORK.] [Illustration] CHAPTER II. THE ANTS:--THEIR DOMESTIC ECONOMY--THEIR NUPTIALS. The ants enjoy a superiority over all other insects, inasmuch as they are less specialized by their mode of life, their nourishment, and the instruments of their industry. Generally, they adapt themselves to all conditions, and work in all climates; nor in all Nature do more energetic agents in purification and cleansing exist. They are, so to say, the factotums of Nature. The termites, at least the majority of them, work in the darkness, under the earth; the ants both above and below. Like the termites, they build, at least in tropical countries, the most remarkable edifices,--domes under which their chrysalides enjoy the warmth of the sun without being injured by its scorching rays. But these are not fortresses; the ants have no need of them; for in the tropical regions they are the sovereigns and tyrants of all other beings. The exterminating _carabi_, the invading _necrophori_, which play among us, as insects, the _rôle_ of the eagle and the vulture, scarcely venture to make their appearance in the burning latitudes where the ants hold sway. Everything which lies on the earth's surface they immediately devour. Lund, in his _Mémoire sur les Fourmis_, says that he had scarcely time to pick up a bird which he had seen drop. The ants were already on the spot, and had seized upon it. The sanitary police is performed by them with an implacable and energetic exactitude.