Though the order of neuropterous—which, by the way, means nerve-winged—insects does not contain any ants, yet the so-called white ants or termites—which are very like ants in their ways, and almost, or quite, as interesting to talk about—are included in it. They are commonest in tropical or, at any rate, very hot countries, such as Africa, Australia, and South America, and here the conical, or dome-shaped structures, made of red earth, which they erect above the surface of the ground, and which contain the greater part of the nest, are of such dimensions as to take a very prominent part in the features of the landscape. Often they are covered with vegetation, including bushes, or even small trees, on which, in Africa, antelopes are accustomed to browse. In Australia there is no reason, that I can see, why kangaroos should not, at least upon the grass which must often clothe them, and which is their staple of food. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: WHITE ANT HEAPS] [Illustration] These great mounds are made by the white ants, and contain their nests; but large and strong as they are, the ant-eater breaks them down and devours the ants. A queen white ant is shown at the right-hand corner with the extraordinary development in which the eggs are carried. These great mounds are pierced in every direction with innumerable galleries, leading to and from the various cells and chambers in which the domestic economy of the white ants is principally performed, one of which, known as the royal cell, contains the king and queen, and is situated beneath all the others. Not all white ants, however—for there are several species—are governed or presided over in this way. Grassi, who studied them in Sicily,[2] declares that the whole of the Termitidæ, whether belonging to Southern Europe or the still hotter countries from which they have, no doubt, been unknowingly imported, fall into two primary types. In the first of these the colony is presided over by a king and queen, representing the fully developed male and female forms, which have once, unlike the workers and soldiers—for, like ants, these insects are divided into castes—possessed fully developed wings, which they have subsequently got rid of in the same way that the queen ant does hers. In the second type the colony possesses several kings and queens, but these, though they marry and produce offspring, are not perfect males and females, and never possess wings. They are, in fact, produced artificially by the working termites, just as the hive-bees are able to make themselves a new queen—should they require one—by feeding an ordinary worker with royal jelly, and by a method somewhat similar though not precisely the same, the royal substitutes being fed, not on any extraneous substance, but on a salivary fluid secreted by the workers themselves—saliva, in fact. The colony, however, is, in this