M 3o8 i c r o s c o p i c a l E s s a y s .
they are never larger; fo that, o f courfe, the voluntary fubjeels
charge themfelves with the talk o f providing for the offspring, o f
their fovereigns, as well as to work and to fight for them, until
theyfhall have raifed a progeny capable at leaft o f dividing the
talk with them.
The bulinefs o f propagation, however, foon commences ; and
the labourers having conftrufited a fmall wooden nurfery, as before
defcribed, carry the eggs and lodge them there as faff as
they can obtain them from the queen.
About this time a molt extraordinary change begins to take
place in the queen, to which we know nothing fimilar, except iri
the PULEX PENETRANS o f LlNNJEUSj the jigger o f the
Weft-Indies, and in the different Ipecies o f c o c cu s cochineal.
The abdomen o f this female begins gradually to extend and enlarge
to fuch an enormous fizfe, that an old queen will have it
increafed fo as to be fifteen hundred or two thoufand times the
bulk of the reft o f her body, and twenty or thirty thoufand times,
the bulk of a labourer; the Ikin between the fegments o f the abdomen
extends in every direftion, and at laft the fegments are
removed to half an inch diftance from each other, though at firft
the length o f the whole abdomen is not above half an inch. They
preferve their dark-brown colour, and the upper part of the abdomen
is marked with a regular feries of brown bars, from the
thorax to the pofterior part of the abdomen, while the intervals
between them are covered with a thin, delicate, tranfparent Ikin,
and appear o f a fine cream colour, a little fhaded by the dark
colour o f the inteftines and watery fluid feen here and there beneath.
It is fuppofed that the animal is upwards o f two years
old
M i c r o s c o p i c a l E s s a y s . 3°9
old when the abdomen is increafed to three inches in length:
they have fometimes been found o f near twice that fize. The
abdomen is now o f an irregular oblong fhape, being contracted
by the mufcles o f every fegment, and is become one vaft matrix
full of eggs, which make long circumvolutions through an innumerable
quantity o f very minute veffels, that circulate round the
infide in a Terpentine manner, which would exercife the ingenuity
of a fkilful anatomift to difleft and develope. This Angular
matrix is not more remarkable for it’s amazing extenfion and fize,
than for it’s periftaltic motion, which refembles the undulating o f
waves, and continues inceffantly without any apparent effort o f
the animal; fo that one part or other alternately is rifing and
finking in perpetual fucceflion, and the matrix feems never at
reft, but is always protruding eggs to the amount, as have been
frequently counted in old queens, of fixty in a minute, or eighty
thoufand and up wards in one day of twenty-four hours.
Thele eggs are inftantly taken from her body by her attendants^
(of whom there always are, in the royal chamber and galleries
adjacent, a fufficient number in waiting) and carried to the-
nurferies, which in a great neft may fome of them be four or five'
feet diftant in a ftrait line, and confequently much farther by
their winding galleries. Here, after they are hatched, the young
are attended and provided with every thing neceflary, until they
are able to Ihift for themfelves, and take their fhare of the labours,
of the community. The foregoing is an accurate defcription ar.d
account o f the termes bellicofus, or fpecies that builds the large
nefts, in it’s different ftates.
. H
Thofe