Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/327

WHITE ANTS. 299 another.two days, had not been injured by thc rain. For some minutes the crunching of hard biscuit was thc only Sound to be heard ; Hercules, in particular, seemed to pound away with his huge jaws as with a pair of milU stones. Mrs, Weldon was the only one of the party who ate little ; and that little was only taken at Dick's earnest solîcitàtion ; he could not help noticing, with much concern, that although Jack seemed to be satisfactorily rccovering, and| without sign of fever^ was slecping calmly enough on a bed made up of clothes spread out in one of the cells, yet his mother had lost much of her courage, and seemed pre- occupied and depressed. Cousin Benedict did due honour to thc simple evening repast ; not on account of its quantity or quality, but be- cause it gave h!m an opportunity of holding forth upon the subject of termites. He was much vexed that he had been unable to discover a single spécimen in the deserted ant- hill with which he might illustrate his lecture, but notwith- standing this defîciency he continued to talk, heedless whether any one was listening. •* They are wonderful insects," he said ; " they belong to thc order of the Neuroptera, which hâve the antennae longer than the head ; their mandiblcs are wcll-developed, and the inferior pair of wings is generally as large as the superlor. There are five families of them ; the Panorpidae, theMyrmellonidae, the Hemerobiidae, the Tcrmitinae, and the Perlidae, I need hardly say that what we are now occupying is a dwelling of the Tcrmitinse.'^ At this point Dick became ail attention ; he was anxious to ascertain whether this discovery of white ants had aroused any suspicion in Benedict's mind that they must be on African soil. The naturalist, now fairly mountcd on a favourite hobby, went on with his discourse. " I am sorry not to hâve a spécimen to show you, but thèse Termitinae hâve four joints in thc tarsi, and strong horny mandibles. The family includes, as gênera, the Mantispa, the Raphidia^ and the Termes, the last commonly known as white ants, amongst which are ' Termes fatalis.