iWmier. * &w thoufands o f fmaller infedts or ants, but without wings, making their way out o f the holes the former had juft made in the earth. Thefe feemedvery eaiily enraged, and were apt to bite; the heads were likewife larger in proportion, and their jaws were more pointed and iharper than thofe of the former. I colledted a fuiiicient quantity o f both forts, in order to prefent them to my entomological friends, and particularly the largeft o f them to Baron de G eer, who has adopted them, in Tom. VII. o f his Memoirs, p. 47. Plate XXXVIII. Fig. 1— 4. by the name termes Capenfe. This illuftrious author has the greater reafon to call them by the name of termes, as he himfelf, as well as Mr. F rish, has difcovered a termes with the rudiments o f wings. It was at the diftance o f a mile and a half from the farm, on rather a woody fpot, that I difcovered the termes Capenfe, and obferved them piercing the ground in feveral places, and with great impatience making their way through the furface. As I was at that time taken up in attending my Hottentot patients, the greater part o f thefe animals difappeared by the next morning, when I got back to the place of their transformation; fo . that I could make no farther obferva- tion on the ceconomy of thefe infedts, which, in all probability, is highly wonderful. Neither can I fay with any certainty, whether this termes Capenfis be the fame fpecies with the white ants, (as they are called) which build and inhabit thofe dark-grey hillocks o f earth from three to four feet high, which I mentioned before, that the fugitive Boihies-men in Lange-kioof frequently explored to no manner of purpofe: for feveral times, when I had an 8 opportunity, opportunity, or gave myfelf time to break into them, (and VI «*»• ■SES . . . . . . . , November. that not without fome trouble) m order to examine them, I had the mortification to find the birds fled. But in the ant-hills or clumps of earth of about a foot high, which I explored on the mountains in Falfe-bay> I found a grey- coloured kind o f termes, or, as it is there called, pifinire, fomewhat different from the white unwinged ones de- fcribed above: but this was loft in my colledtion while I was abfent on my voyage round the world, fo that I cannot with any precifion determine to what fpecies fit belonged. The fame difagreeable adcident happened to me with refpedt to another very diminutive fpecies o f termes, or white ant, which I got a fight o f twice in the road between Bojhies-mans-rivier and Vifch-rivier. This termes was not greater than our termes pulfatorium, or death- watch; and, as well as I can remember, was very like the white ant o f the Eait-Indies, or the termes fatale. Contrary to all expectation, thefe made their way out o f the hard ground, coming to be our guefts in confiderable numbers, whenever we happened to fet our butter-tub, or any thing fat or greafy belonging to our provender-cheft on the ground. The winged ants firft-mentioned (termes Capenfe) my holt had feen in a much greater quantity; he likewife informed me, that the Bojhies-men and other Hottentots, who were obliged to feek their own food themfelves, foon grew fat and in good condition by eating thefe infedts. For this purpofe, they were faid fometimes to boil them in their earthen vellels, in the manner they ufually did grafhoppers; and at other times to eat them raw, as I at that moment faw my holt’s Hottentots do with refpedt to fome few which A a a 2 flew,
27f 72-1
To see the actual publication please follow the link above