Perhaps it is to termites Herodotus alludes when he speaks of ants which inhabit Bactria, and which, larger than a fox, eat a pound of meat a day.[110] Retired in the sandy deserts, these gigantic insects hollow out (says he) subterranean dwellings, and raise mounds of golden sand, which the Indians carry away at the peril of their lives. Pliny, who relates the same fables, adds that there were to be seen in the Temple of Hercules the horns of these ants. Even in our own days some travellers have repeated absurd fables about termites. They have attributed to them a venom which one cannot breathe without being poisoned; they have said that a single bite was enough to cause a mortal fever. The truth, as it is revealed to us by conscientious observers, is still stranger than these fictions or errors. The termites present curious modifications, on the nature of which naturalists are not agreed. There are, in the first place, the perfect insects, males and females, which are provided with wings; then there are the neuters, which are divided into _soldiers_, whose duty it is to defend the nest, and into _workers_, upon whom devolve the architectural works and household cares. These last are smaller than the soldiers. Latreille and some other naturalists think that these workers are the larvæ of the termites. Smeathman thinks that the soldiers are the pupæ. M. de Quatrefages admits that the soldiers are the neuters, and that the workers are recruited both from the larvæ and from the pupæ. It may be admitted, with other naturalists, that the soldiers and the workers are neuters: the first, abortive males; the second, abortive females. Here is, indeed, what M. Lespès has observed in the termites of the Landes. Among these insects, the most numerous are the workers: their size is that of a large ant, and their duties are to excavate galleries, to search for provisions, and to take care of the eggs, the larvæ, and the pupæ. The workers have a rounded head and short mandibles, and are blind. The soldiers, less numerous, have an enormous head--nearly as big as the rest of their body--very strong, crossed mandibles, and are blind like the workers. Anatomy showed M. Lespès that both are _neuters_--that is, the soldiers, males, and the workers, females--with aborted organs. [110] De Quatrefages, "Souvenirs d'un Naturaliste," tome ii., p. 377. In 18mo. Paris, 1854.