TERMITE, or WIIrrE ANT, Termites, a genus of insects of the order neuroptera, and and of the family termitidce or termitince. They live in great communities, chiefly in tropical countries, and are almost omnivorous, in the larva, and pupa, as well as in the perfect state. In their communities there are five classes—males, females, workers, neuters, and soldiers. The workers, neuters, and soldiers seem all to be imperfectly developed females. The males and perfect females have four wings, which are long and nearly equal, and which are often suddenly cast off before the termination of their life; but the greater part of the community consists of workers, which are wingless. The " soldiers" are larger than the neuters, and have very large mandibles, which they are always ready to use upon any assault. The antenme of the genus termer are long and thread-shaped, with about 20 joints; the eyes are small and prominent, and there are three ocelli; the abdomen has a pair of minute caudal appendages. Most of the white ants make their nests on the ground, but some of them among branches of trees, decayed or dry wood forming a principal article of their food. The species which make their nests on the ground make them conical, or turret-shaped, often 12 ft. and sometimes even 30 ft. high, iu groups, like a little village. The soil where the white ants have labored is particularly good, and the south Africans take advantage of its excellent quality. The nest is divided internally into numerous chambers and galleries; there are generally two or three roofs within the dome-shaped interior, and the thick walls are perforated by passages leading to the nurseries and magazines of food. If a breacl•is made in the building, the soldiers appear, ready for defense. White ants are very useful in consuming every kind of decaying animal or vegetable matter. They even eat grass, and the snapping of multitudinous mandibles has been likened to the sound of a gentle wind among trees. They sometimes attack the wood-work of houses, and soon reduce the thickest timbers to a mere shell. Extraordinary and incredible stories are told of their attacking and devouring large animals, but it seems probable that they do so only when the animals are helpless from age or sickness. They come in vast hosts to any place where food is to be found, and are not easily driven off; multi tudes pressing on, although previous multitudes have been destroyed. They gather great stores of corn into their nests, of which the natives of Africa often avail themselves. They are themselves also used as food in Africa, and are said to be delicate and pleas ant. The abdomen of the pregnant female termite becomes dilated to an extraordinary degree, so as to exceed the rest of her body 1500 or 2,000 times, and she is then about 1000 times heavier than the male insect. Her fecundity is prodigious; she is supposed
to lay more than 31,000.000 of eggs in a year.
The termites which live in trees construct nests of great size, like sugar-casks, of particles of gnawed wood, cemented by a kind of gluten, and so strongly attached to the branches as not to be shaken down even by violent storms. These species sometimes take up their abode in the roofs of houses, where they are very destructive to the wood work.
T. mordax and T. atrox are among the African ground-building species. T. luci fugus is found in the s. of Europe, and has proved very destructive in the navy-yard of Rochefort, and elsewhere in the s. of France. Sulphurous gases and chlorine are forced into its galleries, without effecting its extirpation. T. jtaticollis is very injurious to olive trees in Spain. T. frontalis extends as far n. in the United States as Massachu setts, and does mischief in vineries, not only attacking dead wood, but the roots of liv ing vines. No true species of termes is found in Britain, but some of the termitidce are British insects. One of them is peocus indsatoritte, one of the insects which emit a sound like the ticking of a watch in houses. The species of the genus psocus are very small, active insects, living beneath the bark of trees, in wood, straw, etc. Some of them are found among books and in collections of natural history.
In books of travels, the termites are often called ants, their habits being similar, although they belong to a different order of insects TERN (Sterna), a genus of birds of the gull family (laricle), by some made the type of a distinct family (sternida); having the bill as long as the head, or longer, nearly straight, compressed, slender, tapering; the wings long and pointed: the tail long and forked. The plumage is very full. From their forked tail, manner of flight, and small size, the terns are often called sea-swallows. They are incessantly on the wing, skim ming the surface of the water, and catching small fishes and other small animals from it. The species are numerous, and are found in almost all parts of the world. Some of them are of very wide geographic distribution. Many are birds of passage. Thus, all which occur on the British coasts, and in other northern parts of the world, are mere summer visitants. The COMMON TERN (S. hirundo) is abundant on the more southern shores of Britain, but rarer in the north. It is found also on the coasts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, from the Arctic circle to the furthest s.; but there is some doubt if its range extends to America, where a very similar species, WiLsoN's T. (S. Wilsoni), was long mistaken for it.