It was enough to split one of the heaps and watch the termites at work to learn a lesson of what devotion and duty mean.
The peculiar structure of the enlarged heads of the warrior termites was particularly noticeable.
The males and females whose duty was merely to propagate and improve the race were provided temporarily with wings, so that they could fly away from the colony and disseminate their love among other winged termites of other colonies.
The local name for all kinds oftermites was cupim, but technically they are known in the Order of Neoroptera as Termes album.
Alcides said that the termites had played havoc with all my things.
What struck me was that the moment the fray was over the termites at once--if perhaps a little more excitedly--resumed their work.
All I asked of them was to prop them up on stones so that the termites and ants should not destroy my possessions, and to make a shed with palm leaves so as to protect the packages as much as possible from the rain.
It does not appear to be quite settled whether the termites of France are indigenous or imported.
Traveller ants] I was hoping now to have a little rest, when I discovered that, in spite of all our precautions, the termites had got into the chests where we kept our store of drugs and bandages.
The termites ate holes in my helmet and also in the cover of my cot.
Hooker seems to overlook the fact that the termites rarely attack a living tree; and although their nests may be built against one, it continues to flourish not the less for their presence.
These structures the termites erect with such perseverance and durability that they frequently rise to the height of ten or twelve feet from the ground, with a corresponding diameter.
The White Ant--But of the insects of this order the most noted are the white ants or termites (which are ants only by a misnomer).
The number of ants bearing termites was soon so great that the vestibule became choked, and a mass of struggling anthood was piled up around the gate.
No means to detect devastation; termites invisible, embedded in nerve paths' insulation.
Naturally it is impossible for me to see any connection between my work with ants andtermites and the problems of National Defense.
He was admitted to work in one of The Brain's apperception centers where he installed the objects of his studies: certain species of ants and termites of the most destructive kind.
The society of the higher insect states like bees and ants and termites constitutes the oldest and the most stable civilizations in this world.
One professor and 15 tons of termites to be flown from Wallabawalla Mission station, Northern Territory, Australia, to Cephalon, Arizona, U.
That war between the states of the ants and the states of the termiteshas been waged with never abating fury for millions of years--until Dr.
Footnote: It does not appear to be quite settled whether the termites of France are indigenous or imported.
Perhaps you have, many of you, read of the so-called warrior ants, the Termites bellicosi of the more tropical regions.
The termites belong to quite another class of the group Insecta, but in their case a similar sacrifice of the individual to the state is practised.
Natural selection evolves and maintains the instincts of ants and termites in spite of use-inheritance to a more wonderful degree than it evolves the instincts of almost any other animal with the fullest help of use-inheritance.
This may apparently be done independently of the effects of disuse, for certain neuter ants have eyes which are reduced to a more or less rudimentary condition, and neuter termites are blind as well as wingless.
So voracious are they, that even a piece of paper wrapped round a bottle was eaten, the termites building a gallery of clay in order to reach it under cover.
All the species of Termites are not social; but the solitary ones do not, like their congeners, distinguish themselves in architecture.
It is now known that the differences of form among the termites are accounted for as follows.
There are also termites in Europe, and the city of La Rochelle has suffered terribly from them.
In one instance, where a room had been repaired, the stalactitic galleries of the termitesshowed themselves the very day after the workmen had left the room.
Tree-nest of Termites arborum, and Hill-nests of T.
Nor is it only in constructing dwellings for themselves that the termites of Africa and of other hot climates employ their masonic skill.
The termites had got into the boxes by boring through the wainscot of the room, and had then penetrated among the papers.
Illustration: a, A covered way and nest, on the branch of a tree, of the Termites arborum.
Section of the Hill-nest of the Termites bellicosi, to show the interior.
These small Tamanduas are nocturnal in their habits, and feed on those species of termites which construct earthy nests that look like ugly excrescences on the trunks and branches of trees.
Swarms of dragonflies appeared in the daytime about the pools of water created by the rain, and ants and termites came forth in the winged state in vast numbers.
The remarkable scarcity of ground beetles is, doubtless, attributable to the number of ants and Termites which people every inch of surface in all shady places, and which would most likely destroy the larvae of Coleoptera.
The ant-eaters, both of which were now dead, he left behind, as he saw that the termites were crawling thickly around them, and had already begun their work of devastation.
I caught the jacket by the collar; and, using it as a duster, I cleared the sides of the cone in a few moments, having sent thousands of the termites tumbling headlong below.
The office was also home to ants (small, medium and large) and red ants, mice, termites and temporarily to visiting hornets and scorpions.
The termites built their tunnels of regurgitated wood fibre up one wall, along the insulated electrical wires and down the central wooden roof support to the nest that housed their queen.
Similarly, the differences that exist among termites and ants, as Emery shows, may be described as polymorphism due to food.
The Termites who construct vast dwellings of clay, the Beavers who build huts of wood and of mud, have in this industry reached the same point as Man.
The Termites glue them together and thus form the walls of these important cells.
Within them are piled up the provisions which the Termites harvest every day; they consist especially of gums and the juices of plants, dried and pulverised so as to form a fine powder.
The Ants of our own lands do not yield to the Termites in this industry, and their dwellings are models of architecture.
The earliest comprehensive account of the Termites and their industries was by Smeathman in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol.
The walls are extremely strong and are supplied with windows for ventilation, and with doors to enable the Termites to render their services.
African Termitesof Victoria Nyanza, a chapter in H.
Linnaeus calls the termites the scourge of the two Indies; and we might equally well bestow this appellation on the ants, if we considered only the havoc they commit among the labours and cultivation of man.
Comparing the cities of the termites with the cabins of the negro, the subterranean galleries of the ants with the little excavations of our Tourangeaux of the Loire, how we should dwell on the superior skill of the insects!
When the species of termites which live and dwell in the woods unfortunately approach near our habitations, there is no means of arresting their ravages.
The rare species of termites which venture forth into the daylight have very conspicuous and perfectly formed eyes.
Another example of the many-sided versatility of this wood can be found in those timbered regions of America where termites are a problem for home owners.
It probably has a taste which termites cannot stomach.
A mound thrown up by ants or by termites in forming their nests.
Unlike the termites and Ecitons, who harbor a host of weird boarders, the leaf-cutters are able to keep their nest free from undesirables.
When termites wish to traverse an Atta trail, they burrow beneath it, or build a covered causeway across, through which they pass and repass at will, and over which the Attas trudge, uncaring and unconscious of its significance.
Mr. Bates has also placed on record the noteworthy fact that a species of termites exists in which the members of the soldier class did not differ at all from the workers "except in the fighting instinct.
Whatever may be the exact method or causes through or by which the queen bee is developed, Mr. Bates strongly asserts that the differences between the soldiers and worker termites are distinctly marked from the egg.
When a colony of termitesis disturbed, the ordinary citizens disappear and the military are called out.
It is admitted that the termites are in many respects inferior in structure to the bees and wasps, whilst the white ants themselves are the superiors of their own order--that of the Neuroptera.
The termitesare small soft-bodied animals of a pale color, but resemble the common or true ants in that they live in colonies, composed, like those of bees, of three chief grades of individuals.
Once a year, at the beginning of the rainy season, winged termites appear in the hive as developments of certain of the eggs laid by the queen-termite.
The common ants resemble the termites in the general details of their life.
As Mr. Bates remarks, "The wonderful part in the history of the termites is, that not only is there a rigid division of labor, but nature has given to each class a structure of body adapting it to the kind of labor it has to perform.
These neuters exhibit in the termites a further division into ordinary "workers" (Figs.
If the original heat had increased instead of diminishing, the termitesand the ants would perhaps be two great nations, sharing between them the empire of the world, and man would be one of their preys.
I think I remember that at a far-distant epoch, that your geologists call, I believe, the coal age, the termites displayed on your globe a sort of genius.
The aard-vark feeds entirely upon termites and ants, and is nearly always to be found where the nests of those insects are plentiful.
They only take one short flight, however, and when this is over they come down to the ground and snap off their wings close to their bodies, just as termites do.
And it has a queer way of eating termites and ants by breaking open their nests with its great fore paws, blowing away the dust and fine earth, and then sucking up the insects by forcibly drawing in its breath through its lips.
But termites are sometimes very troublesome in houses, for they will devour the woodwork and the furniture and the books, leaving nothing but a thin shell of wood or paper behind them.
And these countless millions of termites perform a similar function for the vegetable world, making away with all plants and trees, all stems, twigs, and tissues, the moment the finger of decay strikes the signal.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "termites" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
